'It's Kahel time': Dalandan season, fun facts on favorite summer sour orange

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MANILA, Philippines — If you notice how abundant Dalandan seems to be these days that even street vendors are selling the juicy citrus fruit, it is because Dalandan season has begun and will be on until the end of March.

It goes by the English name Sour Orange but it does not have to be sour at all. It just has the reputation of being so, but most Dalandan fruits are actually sweet and bursting with fresh natural Vitamin C-rich juice. Botanically classified as Citrus aurantium, it also answers to the Tagalog name Kahel and is referred to as Green Mandarin in Central America.

One of the most popular types of oranges available in the Philippines, Dalandan has a green rind that turns a little yellowish when fully ripe and an orange flesh similar to the segments of other orange variants. The flavor of its juice is so distinct that chefs often use Dalandan in their pastries as well as marinades for both sweet and savory applications.

However, people mostly consume Dalandan as it is, as a fruit enjoyed for merienda or dessert. They peel off its skin to reveal the segments or orange sacs making up the flesh, clean the segments off excessive fiber strands, and pop the segments into their mouth. The seeds are either removed prior to popping the segments of flesh into the mouth or they are spit out.

For commercial applications, Dalandan is peeled and its segments are added to other fresh fruits for salads and salad bowls.

What’s good with Dalandan is that, like its other citrus relatives, it comes packed with Vitamin C and fiber. It also contains Vitamin A, potassium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, calcium, and flavonoids with anti-inflammatory properties.