A small, round Philippine citrus fruit — tart like lime, with a floral sweetness — squeezed over food, into drinks, and into dipping sauces.
Calamansi looks like a miniature lime but tastes closer to a cross between lime and orange, with a fragrant, slightly sweet edge. It's squeezed table-side over pancit, grilled meats, and soups, and it's the acid in most sawsawan (dipping sauce) combinations, like toyomansi (soy sauce and calamansi) and patismansi (fish sauce and calamansi).
Outside the Philippines, fresh calamansi can be hard to find — it's sold fresh or bottled at most Filipino and Asian grocery stores. In a pinch, a mix of lime juice with a splash of orange juice gets reasonably close.
Recipes on Pancit.com that call for calamansi.
Pork skin boiled, dried, and double-fried until puffed and crackling-crisp.
Boiled-then-fried Filipino pork belly with shatteringly crisp skin.
Savory rice noodles with chicken, shrimp, and vegetables — the everyday pancit every household knows.
The Cebuano two-noodle pancit — canton and sotanghon noodles tossed with pork, chicken, and shrimp.
Wheat egg noodles stir-fried with chicken and vegetables in a savory, glossy soy-oyster sauce.
Thick rice noodles in a bold shrimp sauce, piled high with squid, mussels, and seafood.
Rice noodles topped with a rich shrimp-and-annatto sauce, boiled egg, and crushed chicharrón.
Chopped pork, onion, and chili sizzled on a hot plate with calamansi and a raw egg on top.
