Meringues with Longans

Longans (Dimocarpus longan) aren’t lychees at all, but they have a place in my heart, nonetheless. The opening day ceremony for the Peak Café in Hong Kong in 1990 was under a dragon eye tree, a site chosen by the Shinto priest because my company was called Freedragon and the site of the restaurant is the birthplace of Hong Kong’s dragons. That this fruit’s local name is “dragon’s eye” and that it is said to promote a healthy sexual appetite certainly did nothing to deter our enthusia