Summer in Season - Lychees
Monday, July 25, 2005 11:34
Several weeks ago, after an evening of Korean barbecue for dinner, Mom put down a bowl of what looked like little, fat pink and yellow dragons in front of me. Eat them! They were for dessert, but I had no idea what they were nor how to attack the little spiny monsters.
They were lychees! Up until a few weeks ago, lychees were just a very-trendy-for-now flavor for cocktails or hard candy. I had only eaten real lychees as part of a Chinese shaved ice dessert, and knew them as white, sometimes faintly pink, delicately sweet fruits with a somewhat slimy texture like a peeled grape. They were always chopped and mixed in with all the other sweetened condensed milk, almond jelly, and red bean, so I never got a sense for what they looked like whole.
The funny thing is, I knew what a raw lychee looked like based on some pictures I had seen in their more “normal� form to me, in a can. They looked like yellowish pink strawberries. But the bowl in front of me didn’t look anything as innocuous as strawberries.
Berries have no real skin that has to be peeled, so you just eat the whole thing. Lychees have a skin that is rough and scaly, like what I would imagine a dragon to feel like, but the fruit is not hard like a golf ball, it gives when you squeeze it. But though the skin is tough, it isn’t thick. Once you break through, it’s very thin, and isn’t attached to the fruit part. It just peels off. Other “peel� fruits have skins that either have to be cut with a knife, like an apple, or peeled apart because they’re attached to the fruit inside, like an orange. The lychee skin is sort of like an avocado’s.
The flesh inside is milky white, and this is the part with which I am familiar. What I didn’t know about was the shiny dark brown seed inside that pops right out. Now that I think about it, a lychee really is like an avocado, with its reptilian skin and sweet soft fruit surrounding a dark pit that’s not attached. Avocadoes are also known as alligator pears. Lychees should be called…dragonberries.
I’m sort of addicted to lychees now, and each time I’ve gone home this summer, there’s a little bowl of dragons on the counter. Mom gets then at the larger Asian markets in Orange County, and someone tipped me off to their availability at local Trader Joe’s markets.
There isn’t much else you can do with lychees other than eat them raw. Some fruits are food fruits, that you can bake into pastries. Some fruits are just fruit fruits that you eat plain, like grapes and… lychees. I just can’t really imagine that a lychee pie will ever make it onto a dessert menu in the near future. But that’s alright. I’m certainly okay with a summery sweet lychee cocktail after dinner!
By sarah (see more of her posts). You can find more of sarah's writing at her own website The Delicious Life
Jonah says:
July 25th, 2005 at 11:46 am
I LOVE lychees. I bought some at TJs before, but the quality wasn’t great, a portion of the fuits were a bit mushy and spoiled.
I have been buying them at Marina Farms on Centinela near Jefferson. I like getting them there because I can pick through and find the good ones. Last week they had them for about $3.99/lb I think.
I also had a lychee martini up at Yamashiro. The drink had a nice sweetness, plus a skewered lychee instead of the olive, yum!
MaxMillion says:
July 25th, 2005 at 11:58 am
Lychees are wonderful and their texture is unusual — smooth, silky, fleshy and — if they’re good — dripping with sweet juice. Kinda sexy, in fact… The main thing that disappoints me is their large pit. They are a morsel of fruit wrapped around a lot of seed. I would like to try them in a cocktail!
SoCalorie says:
July 25th, 2005 at 12:36 pm
Me too. Jonah, it’s on you: lychee martini meet-up!
sarah says:
July 25th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
lychee martini!
someone make me a double, on the double!
thanks. :)
BestofLA says:
July 25th, 2005 at 3:07 pm
Lychee-tinis are my FAVE! I used to eat the sweet summer fruit straight up from the trees in Hawaii. (My family on the paternal side used to have a small farm on the Big Island with coffee, pineapples, lychees, oh my!)
The lychee martini at Natalee Thai on Venice was the best I’ve had so far! By the way, I’m also a big fan of lychee ice cream too! Good eats!
Dylan says:
July 25th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
did you take those photos? they look great.
sarah says:
July 25th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
hi dylan - sarah here.
yes, i took the photo (thanks!) of the lychee, as well as a whole bowl of the little monsters after peeling, here: lychees living the delicious life
:)
Jonah says:
July 25th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Here’s my two second tip on peeling lychees, I’m sure there are other methods:
1. Squeeze the fruit slightly, to put some tension on the skin
2. Pierce the skin with your thumbnail to make a slit at least half way across the face of the fruit.
3. Put the slit side of the fruit in your mouth and squeeze the other end between your thumb and pointer finger.
4. The fruit and seed should pop into your mouth. Clean the fruit off of the seed spit it out.
Lychees are also best served cold, in my mind.
sarah says:
July 25th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
Dear Jonah -
Does not compute. Please put together a photo-pictorial essay of your instructions. Especially the seed spitting part.
LOL! ;)
I just hand the bowl to my mom, wait about six minutes, and get a whole bowl of peeled lychees back. LOL!
Flavia says:
July 25th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
I’m crazy about them too! And I’ve been eating about 2 pounds of blueberries each day. From TJs!
Jonah says:
July 25th, 2005 at 6:51 pm
Damn, I just got skunked at Marina Farms, no seed spitting demo tonight. I am on the prowl though, I may have my farmer’s market mole pick some up in Santa Monica on Wednesday.
SoCalorie says:
July 25th, 2005 at 6:58 pm
So that’s what that smell is! Your scent has wafted east of La Brea.
Wilson says:
July 25th, 2005 at 7:11 pm
There’s an amazing LYCHEE ice cream from Fossilman’s in Alhambra (one of LA’s best ice cream palours). Its creamy & has chunks of real lychee in it!!!! EVERYONE NEEDS TO TRY IT!!! :]
BestofLA says:
July 26th, 2005 at 8:42 am
Thanks Wilson! I rarely find myself on the East side, but I’ll have to make a special trip out to Fossilman’s soon.
MaxMillion says:
July 26th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
So, when’re we all going for Lychee Martinis at Yamashiros? Huh? Anyone? Anyone?? Bueller?
Lenora M Norden says:
November 4th, 2006 at 10:26 am
How do you prepare the lychees?