Fruits... Glorious Fruits!

          As  a Viet Epicurist (not to be confused with a pedicurist -- who is more than likely a Viet also), I am proud of the variety of fruits South East Asia produces. What's even more amazing is the wide variety of offerings right here at the local supermarkets in Westminster -- aka Little Saigon.

I will highlight my top 5 favourite picks of all time.  My hope is for you will get out there and get a taste of Little Saigon!

Dragon Fruit:

The Spanish version of this is the pitaya or the pitahaya fruit of the cactus plant.  The most common form you will find is called las tunas which turn yellow then red atop fearsome cacti fences along  the southern California desert, down to Mexicali.  However, the Vietnamese version of this -- affectionately called the dragon druit, is round, nice, fat and juicy, with edible seeds the size of sesame seeds.  Thanks to my friend Phoenix, last month I was introduced to the purple variety of the dragon fruit.  Normally, this fruit comes in pink skin, white meat, and black sesame seeds with a light sweet taste.

Tell me... where's the best place you've ever had the dragon fruit?  As for me, the first time I visited Nha Trang where most of these fruits are cultivated, I was out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in a dinghy tour boat, and the captain split open one of these dragon fruits to share.  Tasting the sweetness on my tongue, the salty air and the ocean breeze playing with my hair, I was close to heaven!

For more images of dragon fruit, click here
How to eat a dragon fruit, click here

Lychee Fruit:

This fruit was rumored to be the favourite of Emperor Li Longji's favoured concubine Yang Guifei.  She had demanded the fruit to be transported from the province of Guangdong to the Capital at great expense. What can I say...... the woman had GREAT taste!!!

The lychee fruit can look like a nut when slightly dried on the outside;  hence one often hear non-Asian people calling it lychee nut.  However, that would be a misnomer as this fruit is as non-nut as one can get!  Inside, the meat is white and juicy, with a perfumed sweet taste.  Lychees are canned in syrup.  However, the perfume flavor cannot be captured in the canning process.  For that reason, I highly recommend that you eat lychees fresh to truly appreciate how delightful this little fruit is to the epicurist's tongue.

For more images of lychee fruit, click here

Longan Fruit:

As a child, every summer I would soooo look forward to spending time in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, where my grandmother lived.  The Delta was blessed with silt that was rich in nutrients. As a result, this region produces some of the richest, sweetest, most delightful fruits in all of South East Asia.  To be let loose in a longan orchard to climb the trees, and harvest the fruits from its source... I felt like a squirrel that got the nut!

Speaking of nuts, like lychee - I often hear non-Asian people calling longans nuts also.  That would be wrong. I even heard one guy calling it his dragon balls :)....    not sure where he got the name from but if dragons do exist, I would imagine their balls be the size of the aforementioned dragon fruits, and not tiny like these longans!

For more images of longan fruit, click here

Dates:

Ah... to me, the date is an enigma.
Grown from the palm tree, the fruit when unripe looks hard and unforgiving, inedible.  Though as a brave epicurist, I am tempted to eat anything at least once.  Biting into the yellow unripe date, I was pleasantly surprised by its sweet meaty taste, if somewhat tangy flavour.  The unripe date really reminds me of the areca nut (also from the palm tree) that my great-grandmother used to chew instead of tobacco back home in Vietnam  -- but that's a story for another day!

Like rice to Asia, dates have been a part of the Middle East for thousands of years.  Dates were mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible.  When ripe, dates are syrupy sweet and high in nutritional content as well as fiber.  Its meat can be used in yogurt, baking, or eaten raw pitted or unpitted.

   For more images of dates, click here

Rambutans:

To me, Rambutans have a ferocious look.  I mean, just look at it:  spines covering the entire fruit, and it's red and angry looking!  Luckily, looks can be deceptive.  Once you break open the peel, the meat inside is white and inviting to the lips as a lover's kiss.

It is thought that rambutan is derived from a Malay word for "hairy".  In Vietnamese, it is called chôm chôm which, funnily enough, also means messy hair.

Completely peeled, a naked rambutan can look just like a naked lychee, or a naked longan.  For this reason, it is thought that the three are from the same family. Their tastes are similar too but distinctively different.  If I must rank them along a scale from sweet to sour, I would say longan first, then lychee, then rambutan can be almost citrusy in flavor.

How to eat Rambutan, click here
For more images of rambutans, click here


Until next time friends.... eat well ... stay delightful!
-Joie DeVivre