Riot and Frolic

At some point in my life, I heard there was a thing you could do with grapefruit called "broiling".  What is this new-fangled technique of oven use?  Like, you throw some sugar on top of half a grapefruit, and torch the top of it, and then you get healthy crème brûlée?  Neat!

My main obstacles were that I'd never eaten a grapefruit and I don't like new things, but since I'm making an effort to try said new things, GAME ON, GRAPEFRUIT!

Grapefruits are "in season" now (how, I don't know, since I'm pretty sure the "frozen tundra" ecological system of Minnesota does not support citrus trees) and I bought a few that seemed ripe, AKA pretty.

[Or maybe we could support some tropical fruits.  Here's the MN forecast:]

[Here's the Ojai, CA forecast, where I happen to know oranges and lemons and whatnot actually grow:]

[Winners: MN!]

I used this recipe for broiled grapefruit as a starting point, but didn't use as much sugar or butter.  (For shame!)  Plus, I liked the description:

The pleasures of broiled grapefruit are akin to those of a classic crème brûlée, only here the hot caramelized topping gives way to cool, tart-sweet segments of citrus fruit instead of chilled custard.    

Problem is, besides the lack of chilled custard, I don't think the sugar ever caramelizes.  I've made this a few times in the last week and even when it looks like you could crack that sucker with a spoon a la Amelie, it doesn't happen.  It is, however, still pretty delicious.  And the little ladies won't eat it, so I actually get to ingest an entire portion of something I've made.  

source: Williams-Sonoma

Has anyone else done this with a successfully crunchy topping?  Do you have other strange food preparations?  [Because who came up with broiling a grapefruit?  It seems stupid.  Like, "I'm making my garlic toast and this grapefruit that fell in the sugar bowl accidentally fell in the oven, too, might as well see what happens!"  Hmph.]

Next up: Brewer's Yeast.  Weird stuff, man.

too young! too young!