Longan

Longan fruits, which range from olive to baby plum sized, from spherical to ovoid, are covered with a thin, rough-to-prickly brown shell (pericarp). When this is removed (like an easily peeled shell from a hard-cooked egg), the juicy, translucent gray-white pulp is revealed. This aril clings to a large, smooth, ebonylike seed that - makes any kind of consumption other than pulling with your teeth rather tricky. (Growers tell me that new varieties will have a better ratio of pulp to pit, and that many will be “freestone.”) But the job is rewarding. The soft meat feels like a peeled grape to the tongue, and has a sweeter taste—haunting, with hints of gardenia, spruce, and musk. And like pistachios, the extricating is entertaining.