Daily Express
Special Reports
Published on: Saturday, February 25, 2012
By: Anthea Phillipps
LAST week we discussed Borneo's rambutans, the 'cloud' fruits, in the genus Nephelium.
But the most famous Nephelium of all is undoubtedly the Litchi or Lychee, (formerly Nephelium litchi, but now Litchi chinensis), which has been cultivated in southern China for centuries, mainly in the area around Guangzhou (the former Canton). This has small round fruit s with a smooth, but rather bumpy red skin, and no hairs.
The taste is said to be like delicately perfumed grapes.
The respected American sinologist, Edward Schafer, wrote that the litchi was regarded as a "jewel among fruits" in China and, indeed, the fruits were sent regularly as tribute to the Imperial palace at Chang'an, (today's Xian, famed for its Terracota Army).
Another American, Wilson Popenoe, in his "Manual of Tropical and Sub-tropical Fruits", (1920), tells us that, "While living in exile at Canton, the poet Su Tung-po declared that litchis would reconcile one to eternal banishment. Yet he did not allow his enthusiasm to draw him into gastronomic indiscretions, for he limited himself to a modest three hundred a day, while other men (so he says) did not stop short of a thousand".
Presumably one must allow for a certain amount of poetic license here.
Popenoe adds that "É litchis were first sent as tribute to the Emperor Kao Tsu about 200 BC.
These were dried fruits, however; later fresh fruit were forwarded by relays of men, adding, tongue-in-cheek, that "one is happy to hear that though the cost in human life was frightful, they reached the emperor in good condition."
It is from Popenoe, also, that we learn that in 1059 AD, at a time when the Vikings were invading Europe, that in China, a monograph devoted exclusively to the culture of the southern litchis was written, covering more than 30 different varieties, but for the Imperial court in China's north, with its cold winters, litchis remained a rare and treasured exotic.
Dried fruits, (litchi nuts), are said to taste like raisins and both fresh and dried fruits were used medicinally, helping to "regulate the flow of vital energy, disperse the accumulation of evils and ease pain".
Flowers, bark and roots were also made into a gargle for sore throats.
Though the litchi does not set fruit in Borneo, (it needs a cold, frost-free spell for the fruits to develop), fresh fruit are imported in season and it is a familiar fruit in cans on supermarket shelves, together with another closely related fruit, the Longan or Dragon's Eye, (Dimocarpus longan) in the same family.
Few Chinese banquets are complete without a bowl of syrupy litchis or longans as dessert!
The Longan, (Dimocarpus longan, but also formerly in the genus Nephelium), is widespread across Asia from Sri Lanka and India to China, and down into Borneo.
It was probably grown in southern China for as long as the litchi and was sent as tribute to the Imperial palace as well, but never gained the same status.
Its fruits are said to be more acid in taste but it is still a popular fresh fruit.
It was also, and still is, much appreciated for its medicinal qualities.
The fruits are rich in potassium and vitamin C and a spoonful of longan tonic, made of equal quantities of longan flesh and sugar simmered in water until it is reduced to a thick consistency was recommended twice a day to "invigorate the heart and spleen, nourish the blood, and have a calming effect on the nervous system".
This would have been at a time when sugar itself was treated more as a medicine, or as the occasional delicacy, and today one wonders what the effect of all that sugar would be.
The dried flesh is also widely used in China to make a medicinal tea, and longans are said to be delicious, cooked.
The Borneo longan is a sub-species of the Chinese longan - subspecies malesianus.
Here it is called the Mata-kucing or Cat's Eye.
There are reportedly over 30 varieties of mata-kucing, but the commonest in Sabah, has, like the true longan, small, round, brown fruits with a thin, hard shell, and flesh that comes off the seeds cleanly and completely (unlike that of the rambutan).
The name comes from the single, smooth, brown seed inside the fruit shining through the translucent pulp, just like the true Longan or Dragon's Eye, reminding us of the 'cloud' fruits' long history.
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