The Gift Of Heaven

The famous scholar Le Quy Don described, ‘as it falls inside the mouth, the flavor penetrates the whole palate like a heavenly elixir.’

Indeed, HungYen longan is very special, different from those grown elsewhere. The fruit is round and big; the light brown peel is thin; the pulp is thick, ivory white, dry to the touch but very succulent, delicately sweet, mind-refreshingly aromatic, and the black round seed is tiny and shiny.

Hung Yen longan usually has in its Vietnamese name an additional word ‘lồng’ which may mean ‘cage’ or ‘inter fold’. Some say because the heavenly smell of longan attracts bats, birds and all kinds of other pests, people used to make bamboo cages to protect the fruits. Some others say that the king of longans, fit for kings, was given to the royal court as a tribute every year, packaged in glass cages. The most plausible explanation is that the pulp has many layers that fold around on another, making it more opaque than the longans from elsewhere.