27.6.11

Thai Fruits: Longkong

Despite its humble appearance, the longkong may be one of the more exotic fruits I’ve documented so far. I say this because it doesn’t appear to have an English name, and very few people outside of tropical Southeast Asia seem to have any knowledge of it.

street food and fruit 049

“Oh, you mean longan?” someone will inevitably ask.

“No, longkong,” I’ll state again for the umpteenth time, really trying to annunciate that last ‘g’.

street food and fruit 052

Since trying longkong for the first time over a year ago, it has earned a spot in my pantheon of fruit :) It has a deliciously light, sweet taste, cut through with a zing of acidity which wakes up the mouth. Its texture is soft and though each segment is contained by a thin translucent skin, when you bite into the fruit you discover its juicy nature.

street food and fruit 061

As you can see in the picture above, it is easy to peel and kind of miraculously splits evenly and geometrically in several triangular pieces. No knife required here. It does have a bit of white sap which leaves a slightly sticky residue on your fingers though. No problem, just dab your hands with moisturizer or a bit of oil after eating to remove the sap.

street food and fruit 066

When eating longkong, be wary of its seeds. Usually there are just one or two seeds per fruit (generally depending on the size of the longkong), but trust me when I say you really don’t want to bite into one! The seeds are bitter; to me they taste exactly like pine resin smells. They’re easily avoided though, as you can see a greenish brown seed lurking through the translucent skin and flesh of the fruit segment.

street food and fruit 062

Longkong is high in phosphorus and vitamin C. More importantly, it’s totally delicious. I’ve read that longkong is being more widely cultivated, so if you’re lucky enough to run across it wherever you are, I recommend picking up a bunch.

3 comments:

  1. thanks! it looks very yummy. i get so tired of the same old fruits and would love more variety. bought some more lychee, but was $4 a pound with a huge seed-not much lychee. Was very delicious though!
    we are going to the west side of town today. will stop at international food market and see what we can find.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lanzones!Camiguin Island, Philippines, has Lanzones Festival celebrated in October.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now day, everything is going to find a new but well settled and successful stream for their career. When I came to this blog, I really impressed by all the knowledge points mentioned here. Thank you for this assistance.
    Best Restaurant in Sukhumvit

    ReplyDelete