Starting Over, Take 1,847

Today I was excited to see fresh Rambutan in a local asian grocery.  I’ve seen pictures of the fruit before, and have seen it cans, but canned fruit doesn’t really appeal to me.

Rambutan, longan, and lychee are related fruit.  They all have leathery skin, that when peeled off yeilds a fruit that resembles a large peeled grape.  Inside each fruit is a large pit about the size and shape of an almond (but it’s smooth, firm and shiny - almost like an almond-shaped buckeye)

The name rambutan is derived from the Malay word for “hair,” and it’s the rambutan’s hair that set it apart from the other lychee-like fruits.  The wikipedia article calls the hairs “fleshy pliable spines,” which I think describes the texture better than hair.  

(to see a photo and a description of the fruit, here’s a link to the wikipedia article on Rambutan) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

When I saw them, they reminded me of tribbles, those furry little pet/pests from Star Trek, but when I touched them, I decided they weren’t tribbles so much as kooshballs (those soft rubber balls with hairs/spikes). 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koosh_ball

Adorable, and tasty - what more can you ask from a fruit?

So they’re cute, but are they good?

Oh, my yes!

Similar to both lychee and longan, and almost a flavor cross between the two.  The lychee has a very sweet and floral scent and flavor.  The longan has a milder, more subtle, but also more complex flavor (but be aware that there are at least two types of longan that are sold in the US.  The grocery store owner told me that the longan sold still attached to their branches are the more expensive and the better flavored.  The ones sold loose are cheaper and the flavor is more musky, almost a fermented flavor, like that of beer.

The first longans I tried were sold off the stem, and I did not like them at all.  They tasted like warm, flat sweetened beer (I hate beer, so I was not impressed).  Then I tried the higher quality longan and was very impressed. 

The rambutan fall right in the middle of they lychee in terms of the flavor and aroma.  Less perfumey than lychee, more so than longan.  The lychee is very sweet and the flavor lingers on the tongue longer.  The longan is slightly less sweet and the flavor disapears from your mouth quickly.  The rambutan again falls in the middle.