Kitchen Requirements

7. My Mexican lime squeezer has a regular place on my kitchen sink because I use it so often. How could one possibly make a margarita without it? Or limeade? Or add a quick squeeze of lime to fish?

Made of aluminum, the squeezer has a small perforated bowl in which you place a lime half, cut-side down. Squeezing the handles crushes it with the bowl-shaped upper half, and the juice spurts out through the holes. Simple, quick, efficient.

I bought my lime squeezers (I have three) in Mexico long ago, but I’ve seen them in Mexican shops here, including La Morenita in Cypress Park. Don’t buy the plastic replicas. They’re too flimsy to last.