Lychee

The imperial concubine Lady Yang Kuei Fei of the last emperor of the T'ang dynasty, Hsuan Tsung (A.D. 712-756) had a passion for fresh lychee fruit. To woo Lady Yang Kuei Fei, the emperor had them brought from Canton in southern China to his northern palace, a distance of 600 miles. The emperor arranged for guards mounted on fast horses to convey the Lychees in a "Pony Express" so that Lady Yang Kuei Fei would get her lychees while they were still fresh. 

What is it:

• A lychee is a rare sub tropical fruit originating in South China where the lychee is very important in their culture and is famed as "the King of Fruits".
• The lychee fruit is about 1½ to 2 inches in size, oval to rounded heart shaped and the bumpy skin is red in color the chinese consider the lychee, symbol of romance and love. Once you peel the skin off, the crisp juicy flesh of a lychee fruit is white or pinkish, translucent and glossy like the consistency of a grape, but the taste is sweeter. Lychees have a sub acid sweet taste and have a wonderful freshness to them, It would described as refreshing. Lychee fruit is high in the antioxidant Vitamin C and the essential mineral Potassium.

Benefits:

• Medicinal uses: Ingested in moderate amounts, the lychee is said to relieve coughing and to have a beneficial effect on gastralgia, tumors and enlargements of the glands. One stomach-ulcer patient in Florida, has reported that, after eating several fresh lychees he was able to enjoy a large meal that, ordinarily, would have caused great discomfort.
• Chinese people believe that excessive consumption of raw lychees causes fever and nosebleed. According to legends, ancient devotees have consumed from 300 to 1,000 per day.
• In China, the seeds are credited with an analgesic action and they are given in neuralgia and orchitis.
• A tea of the fruit peel is taken to overcome smallpox eruptions and diarrhea. In India, the seeds are powdered and, because of their astringency, administered in intestinal troubles, and they have the reputation there, as in China, of relieving neuralgic pains.
• Decoctions of the root, bark and flowers are gargled to alleviate ailments of the throat.
• Lychee roots have shown activity against one type of tumor in experimental animals in the United States Department of Agriculture/National Cancer Institute Cancer Chemotherapy Screening Program

Taste:

• Soft and sweet, slightly aromatic.

Preparation:

• simple peel back the outside skin to a soft and juicy inside, remove seed from the centre of the fruit.

Tip:

• The perfect ingredient in tropical fruit blends and beverages
• Studies say that 3 lychees would meet one third of an adult's daily Vitamin C requirement.

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