Fresh and Strange Longan Fruits

What? Never tried the longan fruits before? You dunno what you have been missing! The longan fruits are sweet and absolutely delicious! It is one of my favourite fruits. But the thing is... I have never seen a longan tree before.... :-) In fact I have been walking pass a longan tree day in and day out and I did not realised that it was a longan tree!

Yesterday, I was handed a bunch of longan fruits and I did not even realised what it was... LOL. The fruit's skin was green and the skin was hard and felt thick. The longans that I am used to seeing are brown in colour and the skin soft and easy to peel to get to the fruit inside.


Photo of a bunch of longan fruits I am used to seeing in the fruit market stalls (linked from Wikipedia).


The fresh longan fruits, which I did not even realised was longan.


The longan tree was very tall and the fruits was hard to reach.


A branch of longan fruits.


I packed some to let my colleagues try.

When I had finally gotten to taste the longan, it was not what I had expected. The skin of the fruit was thick and tough to peel. The meat of the fruit was fleshy, but lack the sweetness and juiciness usually associated with the longan fruit.

In any case, it was an experience to remember. Maybe the fruit had not yet ripen, hence the green skins... LOL. Maybe next year when longan is in season again, I will wait till the fruits is properly ripen :)