Rambutan: Today's new food is another produce find from last weekend's trip to the Buford Highway Farmers Market. How many times have I typed that sentence during this blog? I don't even want to know, but that's ok - the BHFM has kept this blog running on days when no place else has been usable. Even though I'm sick of shopping there, it's value has been unmeasurable. I hate that I've grown tired of places/things I used to love, but I guess that was to be expected.
Anyway, while I was browsing the produce, I spotted these unusual looking things called rambutan. They were cherry-sized, dark red in color, with prickly hairlike pieces covering the surface. I'd read that they were similar to lychee, but I was curious to find out how similar, so I found a couple loose ones and threw them in my basket.
I didn't get around to trying these until today, and based on their thick outer skin, I figured they'd still be fresh. I made a small incision in the skin, then peeled it away, revealing a spherical fruit on the inside that looked like a peeled white grape. I figured these would have a pit, so I carefully chewed the fruit from around the outside. The flavor reminded me a lot of lychee, but a bit more grape-like. It was sweet and sour at the same time, but the only drawback was the amount of crunchy seed covering still left on the edible fruit. I tried to get rid of all of it with the second one, but it was almost impossible.
If you like lychees or longans, make sure to check out rambutan. If you don't want to do all the work with the fresh ones, a lot of markets sell them canned in syrup.
No comments:
Post a Comment