The Longan is a tropical tree native to southern China. The tree is very sensitive to frost. It is also found in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It is also called guiyuan (桂圆) in Chinese, lengkeng in Indonesia, mata kucing in Malaysia, and quả nhãn in Vietnamese. The longan (“dragon eyes”) is so named because of the fruit’s resemblance to an eyeball when it is shelled (the black seed shows through the translucent flesh like a pupil/iris).

The fruit is edible, and is often used in East Asian soups, snacks, desserts, and sweet-and-sour foods. They are round with a thin, brown-coloured inedible shell. The flesh of the fruit, which surrounds a big, black seed, is translucent white, soft, and juicy.

When I first arrived in Saigon, my grandpa’s younger brother Ong Ti stopped by my office to say hello. He arrived with a smile and huge bag of nhãn as a welcome gift. The nhãn were very dusty upon arrival, but I washed them thoroughly in water, removed them from their stems, and refrigerated them uncovered in bowls. For the following three weeks, The Astronomer and I were able to snack on nhãn to our hearts’ content. After years of eating canned nhãn coated in heavy syrup, it was a welcomed treat to finally taste the real thing.

The pitaya (also known as pitahaya, dragon fruit, huǒ lóng guǒ (火龍果/火龙果), strawberry pear, nanettikafruit, or thanh long) is the fruit of several cactus species, especially of the genus Hylocereus, but also see Stenocereus. Native to Mexico and Central and South America, these vine-like epiphytic cacti are also cultivated in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. They are also found in Taiwan, Okinawa, Israel, and southern China. The pitaya only blooms at night; they are large white flowers that are often called Moonflower or Queen of the Night.

Thanh long is hands down the most visually arresting fruit in all of the land. However, its taste is nowhere near as spectacular as its appearance. Underneath the magenta skin lies the fruit’s white flesh, which is full of tiny, edible seeds. Thanh long tastes similar to a kiwi, but its sweetness is one-dimensional and lacks any sort of tartness. Consuming the entire fruit at once bores my taste buds, so salads are the way to go for enjoying this particular piece of vegetation.