Lychee

[jmtorres]

I went to the Asian market today, which is always an exciting adventure of "Oooh, I can't get that anywhere else!" and "Buns/samosas/mochi balls! What filling is in them? That sounds tasty" and "I would not have thought to combine those ingredients into a soup but I will assume this is a tested recipe and give it a try."

I've been enjoying lychee martinis at the froofy sushi restaurant recently (I especially enjoy telling unwitting companions when they ask "What's that" re the skinless, from-a-can lychee in the drink, "An eyeball." People of the approximately 147 countries represented by foodstuffs in this market, I apologize for exoticizing your cuisines.) Anyway, today at the market they had fresh lychees, and though I had earlier resisted the lure of a can of lychees--I should not make lychee martinis at home, I should not--I could not resist buying a bag of fresh lychees, because fresh fruit is this AMAZING thing and anyway this bag is huge. Like, it contains dozens of lychees. I don't even know.

Okay, I have never met a fresh lychee before in my life. Advise me, oh droll. At what color/texture have they achieved peak ripeness? Does one eat the skin, or remove it? (After all, canned peaches are usually skinless but that doesn't mean you can't eat their skin.) If it's advisable to remove the skin, what is the recommended methodology? How many of these fruits does one eat at once? Does one eat them with other things or totally on their own? And lastly, is the "y" pronounced long "I" or long "E"? I had a waiter correct me on that the other night but he was Anglo like me so I don't trust it necessarily.

Comments

[flourish]

I have no idea about these things about lychees (which I pronounce as "lee-chees," but that's how they say it in Brazil, I've never heard a non-Brazilian person say it) but I can tell you that if you EVER encounter a Brazilian-Japanese fusion place or even a straight up Brazilian place you should run, DON'T WALK, and request either 1) a lychee caipirinha or 2) a lychee caipisake. (Lychee caipirinha: lychee, sugar and cachaça. Lychee caipisake: lychee, sugar and sake.)

When I'm in Brazil, I mostly eat Japanese food because there's a huge and vibrant Japanese community in Rio. Brazil has lots and lots of temaki - way more than I've ever seen in North America - and the perfect accompaniment is a caipirinha or caipisake. I swear I'd rather eat sushi with a lychee caipirinha than with any other drink!

Anyway, that is totally off the topic but I'm always excited to be able to introduce this to people. SO NOW YOU KNOW WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT.

[everysecondtuesday]

In my head I pronounce it "raichi" (assume that is a Japanese r/l sound), but now I'm not sure if I picked up the pronunciation from Japanese people or other foreign exchange students. It's not like I often chose that flavor of kitkat, and I didn't often drink soda in Japan (not when there was milk coffee and peach juice on the table), besides which it originally being a Chinese fruit in the first place. The wiki article on it, though, advises not eating too many at once. It doesn't really specify how many are too many, though.

[jumpuphigh]

I've only had fresh lychees in Thailand and they were perfectly ripe. I could peel them with my thumbnail. You don't eat the skin. I'd buy a bag at the farmer's market and then just eat them until I didn't want anymore. You just peel the skin until you can pop the fleshy bit into your mouth and then spit out the seed.

Here is part of what my cookbook from the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School says about them:
Lychees are a lime-sized fruit and they have a red, smooth skin. When they are peeled a clear juice starts running from them. The flesh is colourless with a stone in the centre. They are sweet and juicy and very popular.

[scaramouche]

In my part of the world (South East Asia) it's pronounce lye-chee! My country used to import lychees from China by sea back in the (I can't recall exactly) 18th century, I think? They got beat up a lot by the sea travel that we had no idea they were supposed to be bright red until we started planting our own.

The skin should be bright red, peel it before you eat. I can't eat too many in a go (max 4-5) because I have asthma, and I know other asthmatics that have a similar problem. Not sure what it's like for other people, though.