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Very nice video Cassandra. Those rambutans look just a tad past their prime with their splinterns starting to blacken. I'm sure they're still good, but not at their very best taste. Hawaiian hula berry? Nobody uses that name here. I saw that in an article, someone just totally recently invented that name in their head, and it only exists in that one head. Most of the rambutans commercially sold are cultivars and are non clig pulp to the seed. As BMc points out almost all rambutans still have the testa which will stick to the fruit. The testa is the outermost very thin layer of the seed. Sometime you get similar thing happening in avocados. It just a very minor nuisance in my opinion, although some ultra fussy people make a very big deal about it. I would say a great majority of people here prefer rambutan over longan. Rambutan usually fetches a slightly higher price and seems to sell a lot better than longan. But maybe that could just be because longan is available most of the year and rambutan is seasonal. By far the biggest favorite here is lychee. Pulasan most people don't even know what that is yet. Pulasan is very very rarely seen for sale at farmer's markets. It's not a commercially grown fruit here. Welcome to the world of sapindaceaes. There are some very good fruits in that family.
Hawaiian hula berry? Nobody uses that name here. I saw that in an article, someone just totally recently invented that name in their head, and it only exists in that one head.
I would say a great majority of people here prefer rambutan over longan. Rambutan usually fetches a slightly higher price and seems to sell a lot better than longan. But maybe that could just be because longan is available most of the year and rambutan is seasonal. By far the biggest favorite here is lychee.
Quote from: fruitlovers on December 24, 2013, 12:04:19 AMHawaiian hula berry? Nobody uses that name here. I saw that in an article, someone just totally recently invented that name in their head, and it only exists in that one head. Actually, the company from whom I bought the rambutan is promoting the Hula Berry name. So maybe it's going to start picking up (or has already, outside of Hawaii)? I stuck the N on the end of Hawaii though. Thought it sounded more proper. Quote from: fruitlovers on December 24, 2013, 12:04:19 AMI would say a great majority of people here prefer rambutan over longan. Rambutan usually fetches a slightly higher price and seems to sell a lot better than longan. But maybe that could just be because longan is available most of the year and rambutan is seasonal. By far the biggest favorite here is lychee. I have a guess on the longan versus rambutan there, and I could be totally wrong. But to me, visually, rambutan is a much more interesting fruit. Longan look rather, eh. Brown and potentially boring, to the unsuspecting new customer. It's a known statistic that the color red pushes more sales. Lychee seems to have the best of both. It's pinky red and slightly bumpy, which makes it more interesting to look at than longan, but (apparently) tastes better than rambutan.
Thanks GreenThumb. If anyone wants me to do more videos, all they have to do is mail me a box of ripe, good looking fruit and I'll get to work on more. Okay Oscar, that makes sense. Longan didn't seem to be the most popular while I was in Thailand either. I'm (unfortunately) a very curious person by nature. If I were actually in Hawaii, I think it would be interesting to ask local people which they prefer and why. -- I have a very big sweet tooth, and longan is a lot sweeter to me than this rambutan. Rambutan seems to be a sweet, tart, citrusy mix, which is why I said it reminded me of fruit punch. Longan just seems strong and sweet, minus the tart and citrus. I know a lot of folks who don't like "sweet" as much as me. They probably would prefer the rambutan.
I just dried a bunch of longan and it's almost better than fresh....very yummy!
Quote from: fruitlovers on December 24, 2013, 10:41:54 PM I just dried a bunch of longan and it's almost better than fresh....very yummy!I remember, quite vividly, being challenged by you when I said that I preferred some fruits dried to their fresh form (I think we were referring to figs if I recall correctly). Your comment was to the effect that dried fruits were good for trail mix and that if I found dried better then I wasn't eating the best quality fresh fruit of the variety dried.....or words to that effect. Am I mis-quoting you? Well, anyway, you did say here that the longans you dried were "almost better than fresh" so I guess you're still consistent. But, it sounds like you may be coming around to my way of thinking. I also like dried longans but I find fresh far superior.
If I like something enough, I'm willing to work hard to get it. I've got no problem opening longan. That parallels my enthusiasm for snow crab. My mom always said she never saw anyone as dedicated to efficiently cleaning out every piece of meat from the shell as I. I haven't tried any of these fruits dried. I had a bad experience as a kid and tend not to eat the dried stuff so much now... Long car ride and a tub of dried apricots. Silly me didn't realize that dried stuff is going to expand in your stomach. I ate the entire tub. They did not remain in my stomach long.