Breakfast is included at Viroth’s Villa — which is a hotel property of Mr & Mrs Smith and is where I am currently staying in Siem Reap in Cambodia — and part of breakfast was a curious little tan fruit that I personally had never seen before.
Longan? What is a Longan?
I searched for this distinctive fruit via the Internet and found out that it is called a longan.
Once my answer was confirmed in the affirmative, question marks were once again popping out of my head in different colors, as they did when I first learned of a tree tomato in Nairobi back in 2015 after I had been on safari. I had never heard of the name lulo.
Curious, I took one to sample. Parts of the inside of the fruit was reminiscent of the color of a lime — if you applied a little imagination.
Tasting a Longan
I then tasted it. My tongue was greeted with a mild yet rather sweet flavor Longan fruit has a very sweet, aromatic, and juicy taste, often described as a mix of grape and melon with a subtle, musky, or honey-like finish. The translucent flesh is similar to a grape in texture, but slightly chewier. It is related to lychee, though generally less floral and more intensely sweet. .
What Is a Longan — and How Can It Be Used?
Curious, I searched for the term lulo on the Internet and found that it is a nickname for Solanum quitoense, according to this article found at Wikipedia. It is also known as a naranjilla.
Native to countries in northwestern South America, the lulo can be eaten raw on its own; but it is typically used for beverages with and without alcohol…
…but at OKA Grill House — which is the restaurant in the Hilton Bogotá Corferias hotel property — the fruit is used in many different types of culinary applications.
Final Boarding Call
As with the aforementioned tree tomato, this is probably one of those fruits to which I have never paid any attention or was not aware; but I would not be surprised if it is destined to one day eventually become as popular as a kiwi fruit.
Have you ever tried a longan — or naranjilla, as it is known in Ecuador and Panama? If so, what do you think about it?
All photographs ©2019 by Brian Cohen.
