Seek Out New Life Forms - What is a Longan?

By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 28, 2011 8:20PM

The parade of unfamiliar fruits (at least, unfamiliar to us) continues. After our brief encounter with the Buddha's Hand, which ended in tasty shortbread, we returned to the local market to find this strange creature sitting next to the checkout counter. At first, it looked like some sort of strange nut - it came in a small cluster of 3, with a long stem. It almost looked like a petrified, fossilized cherry. As we quickly learned, it was a Longan.

The Longan is an Asian tree fruit, and despite the similar shapes, it is not edible like a cherry. A Longan must be peeled, and the hard, thin shell must be removed. Perhaps we had forgotten to file our nails to a point that morning, but it took a knife to get us inside. Once we did, we discovered a gelatinous ball, not unlike that inside of a Rambutan! The resulting fruit was very similar to a Lychee in taste and texture, except that it had an aftertaste that made out taste buds distinctly unhappy. If texture is your phobia of choice, the Longan is not for you - it's kind of like a fibrous jelly candy. We hope that it was a bad Longan, because otherwise, this is our first new discovery to end in dislike.

Apparently, if you do like the taste, it can be substituted into any recipe that requires Lychee. Smoothies, fruit salads and desserts seem to be the best uses of this fruit, and you can certainly eat it raw - it is high in potassium and vitamin C. You will sometimes find dried Longan at Chinese grocery stores, which can be used as a snack or a soup ingredient. Has anyone had great success with this particular fruit?