Lychee - A Photo

I wanted to make a fancy mousse, gelee dessert out of lychee I got at the Asian market but honestly we like to eat them as is fresh! Here is a bit of lychee history, cultivation, nutritional value and medicinal value. Tropical and subtropical fruit tree indigenous to southern China and grown now in many parts of the world. A history of cultivation over two milleniums introduced to the west in 1782. It was also an excercise in photography for me.

18 comments:

  1. I LOVE lychee! it's also my daughter's favorite fruit :) She actually eats a bag full of lychee herself :)

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  2. Love lychees. Gorgeous photograph shulie! :)

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  3. Love the photo; all I could think was, 'Someone's having fun with her new camera.'

    Have never had lychees; they are the stuff of books and fairytales in my land. Denver. :)

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  4. Chinmayie, An and Barb, TY so much. Having much fun I think I am getting the knack of it. While with my previous camera I had a favorite corner in the house with couple prime shooting times during the day with perfect lighting. I find with this camera I need to change a location. Still in search for perfect time/lighting of the day and spot. I know it sound ridic but true. Barb, you should try to get your hands on lychee at the Asian market. When good, the are sweet, sublime. Perfect to add as a touch in booze, serve along ice cream and much much more.

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  5. Brings back memories of eating them in San Francisco... oh how I loved peeling them and admiring their fun, grape-like shape. Beautiful pic, my dear!

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  6. so simple and pretty. love the pink hues of the lychee~

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  7. I love eating lychee just like the way it is. Plain .. peel and eat!

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  8. Love the beautiful spikes of Lychee. The same happens with many of our favorite fruits, Shulie. I purchase them in anticipation of transforming them to an exotic dessert...but all end in our tummy :) Lychees, Strawberries, Kiwi..are the few in the list.

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  9. Lovely photo Shulie! Congrats on new camera. My neighbor gives us lychees and I love them;)

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  10. gorgeous. You know the Vietnamese name of this fruit also means "large tear drop". It's quite poetic since there's bit of history (tragedy!) to the fruits, too.

    regardless, i love lychees!

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  11. Thank you for reminding people that we don't need to make desserts. What better than the sweet natural flavor of fruit!

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  12. Thanks so much for the interests on the lychee story! Here is the brief story - I am not good story telling, but here it goes.

    Lychee has two names in Vietnamese. The common one is vải. And other more poetic name is lệ chi, which means “tear drops on the branch”.

    Back to the 15th century something, a very popular hero called Nguyễn Trãi resided in a lychee plantation called Lệ Chi Viên. He was one of the most beloved historical figures in Vietnamese history, helping the Emperor fight against the Chinese rulers. He was also a scholar, a poet and a fighter.

    Once the emperor visited the plantation and died suddenly on the way. Nguyễn Trãi was blamed for the emperor’s dead wrongfully, and his whole extended family was killed. Rumors had it that Nguyễn Trãi’s concubine had an affair with the king at the time, but we never knew for sure. Most probably, all of these were due to the dirty political forces at the time.

    20 years later, the new King pardoned Nguyễn Trãi, claiming that he was innocent and wrongfully killed.

    It was such a sad story in our history, involving an inspirational figure (he was our hero at the time of war and desperation). The case was named “Lệ Chi Viên”, playing on the meaning of lychees being “tears on the branches”. It implies that Nguyễn Trãi was innocent all along, and the whole world cried for his dead.

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  13. beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!! so much fun when we get to play w/cameras!!

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  14. One of my favorite fruit! Gorgeous photo!

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  15. Heaven knows I have tried a few times to work these lychees into desserts but I always end up eating them!

    Next to mango, lychees are my favorite summer treats!

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  16. We've just discovered them year since moving to Houston and having a huge Asian population thus markets available. Thank you for some of the history!

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  17. I think you caught the essence of the lychee - the tiny 'thorns', and the wonderful salmon pink blush that it has. Exquisite photography really! And of course, I'm sure you enjoyed the lychee ;p

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