Chow Vegan

Lately, fresh lychees have started to pop up at the Asian grocery store. Beneath the red bumpy skin is a sweet, fragrant, juicy, translucent grape-like white fruit. If you’ve never tried them before, they’re quite the summertime treat.

Fresh lychees are so good as is, I’ve never been able to bring myself to actually use them in a recipe. They have a freshness that the canned version doesn’t quite capture. With such a short season (a few weeks) I must eat them before they’re all gone.

To eat, just stick a thumbnail in towards the top to break the skin (be careful not to squirt juice all over the place) and the rest of the skin should easily be peeled off. I like to eat them as I’m peeling them – watch out for the smooth, shiny, hard pit in the middle.

I also remember eating bags of dried lychees as a kid. Although I haven’t seen the dried lychees at any store for years. The whole lychee is dried with the skin on. When dried, the skin turns a cinnamon-brown color and becomes somewhat brittle and the inside becomes dark brown and raisin-like. They were mighty tasty and fun to eat too.

I was down south in the Central Coast area last week, and picked up a half flat of farm fresh strawberries from Okui’s Strawberry Stand in Grover Beach. They’re locally grown, actually in the field right there behind the stand. Can’t get any fresher or sweeter than that.

A half flat of strawberries contains 6 pints – that’s a lot of strawberries. I’ve been eating them plain as a snack. I’ve been eating them with cereal for breakfast. I’ve been drinking them in smoothies. I even convinced my Mom to try some in her salad. She thought I was kidding but it really is tasty in green salads.

But there’s still a lot left, I’ll have to think of something else to do with them strawberries. Any suggestions? Oh, I think I hear the freezer calling their name.