Fruits from Asia

Lychee is a tropical tree native to the Guangdong and Fujian provinces of southeastern China. Lychee is sweet tasting and used in many desserts and drinks. The fruit is known for its floral scent. The outer rind of the fruit is inedible, but it is easily removed to allow access to the white flesh inside.

Jujube's taste can be described to be similar to Date palm. You can eat it fresh or dry (like the dates). The fruit and sedds are used in Chinese and Korean traditional medicial to cure a variety of ailments. A compound found in the leaves of the jujube has the ability to preceive sweet taste.

Rambutan is native to Southeast Asia. Rambutan got its name from the Malay word for hair because the golf-ball-sized fruit has a hairy red and green shell. The outer spines do not hurt and are harmless. The Rambutan is related to lychee and has a very similar taste.

The Yangmei fruit also known as Bayberry is extremely common in China and is frequently eaten raw and used in creating alcoholic drinks. However, it is much less common outside of China, because the fruit is very perishable, making it challenging to transport. The fruit is small, slightly larger than a cherry, and has a similar taste and texture to a strawberry.

The Longan fruit is from the soapberry family. The pulp of the Longan is white and it has a dark center seed. The contrast gives it an appearance of an eye. This gave the fruit the name of "drason's eye". The English name is from the pronunciation of the Chinese name. Just like its relatives in the soapberry family, the fruit has a sweet taste.

Durian is well known for its intense aroma. The odor may linger gor several days, which has led the fruit to be banised from certain hotels and public transportation. Descriptions of the taste vary considerably, but one example is that the fruit tastes like rotten mushy onions. The flesh can be eaten at various stages of ripeness. The seeds can also be eaten when cooked.

The loquat is native to China. The loquat trees flower in the autumn/early winter and are ready by early summer. The fruit is sweetest when soft and orange. The flavor is described as a mixture of peach and citrus.

Breadfruit can be eaten in multiple stages of ripeness. When the fruit is mature, it can be eaten raw and has a sweet and creamy taste, making it a good option for desserts. But more often it is baked or fried. As the name sugguests the taste when cooked is decribed as potato or bread like.

Noni is roughly the size of a mango and is normally eaten for its potential health benefits, rather than its taste.The juice from the fruit is bitter, so people tend to use it as part of a fruit juice or smoothie, so the taste can be masked.In Thai cuisine, its leaves are used as vegetables and the fruit as a salad ingredient. The Polynesians also utilized the fruit to treat menstrual cramps.

Mangosteen is sweet and tangy but its rind is inedible.It used to be illegal to import the mangosteen into the United States because there were fears that the fruit contained the Asian fruit fly.