Longan Season Has Returned; Check Them Out With Some Lychees At The Korean Markets

I think that longan season has arrived again, and you should go harvest a bag of your own at one of the Korean markets like Super Grand in Laurel.

Longan are a tropical tree that puts out bunches of fruit.  The thin, leathery skin splits easily and releases a tender, moist fruit.  Imagine a peeled grape, although the flavor is less sweet and the interior seed is a lacquered black pit.  I can pop them for hours.

Mrs. HowChow picked longan at the Super Grand on Sunday.  She learned from a woman who didn't speak English, but pantomimed that you want fruit still attached to a branch or at least with a bit of stem on the end.  If the stem was broken off, that might have left a hole and a dried out fruit.

(That's a lot to learn through pantomime, but Mrs. HowChow and another woman agreed that they'd learned the same lesson.)

I assume that longan are available at Lotte in Ellicott City and at H Mart in Catonsville.  I think their season runs for a few more weeks in late summer.

While you're at it, pick up some lychee as well.  They're a cousin to longan, slightly sweeter and moister than longan.  They were also a key part to our first date and an early HowChow post.

(Update: Check out the A Day In The Life II blog for a post about how to eat longan and lychees.  Great pictures and description.  It's easy once you have eaten one, I promise.)