Dragon eyes.

I was so delighted that I decided to pop into a little store nearby our office today, as I have walked past it before and noticed that they have nice selection of fruits on sale - and got bag of longans for desert!

龍眼

The longan ("dragon eyes") is so named (from its transliteration from Cantonese) because its fruit, when it is shelled, resembles an eyeball (the black seed shows through the translucent flesh like a pupil/iris). The seed is small, round and hard, and of an enamel-like, lacquered black. The fully ripened, freshly harvested shell is bark-like, thin, and firm, making the fruit easy to shell by squeezing the fruit out as if one is "cracking" a sunflower seed. When the shell has more moisture content and is more tender (due to either premature harvest, variety, weather conditions, or transport/storage conditions), the fruit becomes less convenient to shell.

YUMMY!!!!

Next one on the list is Rambutan and Langsat!