A few years ago, after dining at one of our favorite Key West
restaurants, Ambrosia, we were presented with an odd looking little fruit. We were told it was a lychee, "a delicacy, delicious – please try"! We did and sure enough it was. They are also breathtakingly expensive in the states. We decided to stick to M&Ms and nuts for party snacks…
Happily, in Costa Reeeeee-ca, land of abundant fruits and vegetables, we’ve found lychee’s relative, rambutan. They are beautiful, taste exactly like a lychee and at 500 colones ($1) per kilo (2.2 lbs), are breathtakingly affordable. Like all the other fruits and vegetables here!
At the farmer’s market in Alajuela yesterday, the boys bought 2 kilos. Plenty of fiber, juicy, not too sweet, odd looking and cheap. These MUST
be good for you! Except the nut: it’s poisonous so don’t eat it!
According to Wikipedia, it’s best to eat rambutan
sparingly – they are very YANG. Gotta balance with a touch of YIN… I’m thinking of serving it up with a little melon and green tea… Yummy!
We’re told they call them mamonchino’s here. I don’t care what others call them. They’ll always be kooshball fruit to me! Glad you’re back. Hope you had a wonderful vacation in Florida. Jennifer
Thanks, Jennifer. I found this article on the tasty little fruits from A.M. Costa Rica: http://www.amcostarica.com/082702.htm. The link to the Wikipedia page about rambutan sadly did not mention mamón chino (spelling according to A.M. Costa Rica.) But I just edited that page – now the world will know about mamón chino! Cool.
fyi – I was told by my Tico-pedia (he knows everything) that Mamon chino is a local slang name and it means Chinese testicles – because that’s what they think it looks like. Funny huh.
I should add that that’s what it looks like WITHOUT the shell part.