មៀន reads as [Mean]: Longan, (Dimocarpus longan) is a tropical fruit tree of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae) which is native to Asia. Fruits to this family are lychee, rambutan, guarana, ackee, korlan, genip, and pitomba. Local people grow them a lot in Cambodia. The harvesting season is mostly from April to June. They have great value in religion and belief as people often use them to offer to Buddha or as offering. You will see people sell the fruit along the street more on Buddhist Holy day. Cambodian word for Rich sounds Mean as well so the fruit can represent them as wealth when offering. តាង៉ែន reads as [Tagnen] **(**dragon eye fruit) is very similar in taste and appearance to longan fruit but with more flesh and less aroma. The Dragon eye fruit has very small seed, unlike longan that has big seed. The drangon eye fruits are known to only been grown only in Pailin region. They both has white-flesh. However, longon has great aroma and juicy flesh which is mildly sweet and musky flavor. Both fruits are commonly sold fresh, dried, or canned in syrup.
Price: 3-5$/kilo
Longan is known to Cambodians as one of the top 3 energized fruits, among coconut and mango.
The famous region for growing Longan is Koh Krabey, near Phnom Penh
The famous for growing Dragon eye fruit is Pailin, near Thai border.
Fruit nutrition
Nutritional value of 100 g of longan fruit contains:
Nutrition value
Nutrition value in #Gram
Water
82.75 g
Energy
60 kcal
Protein
1.31 g
Fat
0.1g
Carbohydrate
15.14 g
Fibre
1.1 g
Calcium
1 mg
Iron
0.13 mg
Magnesium
10 mg
Phosphorus
21 mg
Potassium
266 mg
Zinc
0.05 mg
Copper
0.169 mg
Manganese
0.052 mg
Vitamin C
84 mg
Thiamine
0.031 mg
Riboflavinn
0.14 mg
Niacin
0.3 mg
Benefits of the fruit
It has greater benefits to one’s health, such as:
A general tonic to increase energy and boost the immune system.
Reduce or cure depression & relieve anxiety
Decrease fatigue &improves digestion
Boost and improve memory function
Protects against chronic diseases
Lowers inflammation
May treat insomnia & prevent anaemia
May aid weight loss
Regulates blood pressure
May manage cancer
Enhances skin health
Boosts libido
Use as anti-venom for snake bites
How to eat the fruit
Flesh from the fruit can be used in various ways:
Eat fresh flesh of the fruit by peeling of the skin
Use fresh or canned pulp or flesh of longan fruit in sorbets or as juices and fruit smoothies, make pudding, jams and jellies.
Add fresh longan fruit to fruit salads.
Add fresh or canned longan fruit to herbal teas and cocktails.
From the photo, Longan looks like the Sapodilla that is found in our country @Sophia_Cambodia . But from the inside view, unfortunately, it is not found here or I have never seen it. It is very interesting to know that this fruit is offered to become wealthy. Thanks a lot for this nice post with nice information and photo. Stay safe.
Oh, it is totally different for us, both the inside and outside @MukulR my 3 year-old niece loves eating this fruit too much. However, the more you eat, you may get higher temperature because it has so glucose inside.
Ah, so it means that you have not eaten them before @KalyanPal I think you can have them as a canned juice but they are using dragon eye fruit instead of longan as they have much more flesh with smaller seed. Anyway, eating fresh is the best option if you can.
I heard my colleagues said our expat colleagues don’t know how to eat the longan too @AbdullahAM so it is no offense. They said it is too sweet. Well, to be honest, majority of longan species are not tasty but this one from Koh Krabey, I guarantee that you would love be it too, it ha snore flesh, not too juicy sweet and small seed.
Well, I love all the fruits, so I cannot probably choose one and not to eat others, hehehehe @AngieYC however, it is friendly and easy to eat longan than rambutan. I think I eat both fruits from the best species. This is the best of it’s kind. Rambutan that has fresh and sharp taste is also best among it’s species. I had the best one whole on the trip last week.
That’s very good to know @AngieYC that is why I love peeling jackfruit for my siblings. I peel out seed and resin, then put then in the box and store it in the fridge. Then, they just take it out and eat.
I always like fruits, growing up with so many kinds of fruit trees around the house. My dad is not a lazy guy and as we are a big family so he ensures we have enough to eat. Since, I ate homegrown fruits all my life, I know which one is natural and tastes better than another one. We had about 40 mango trees at home with different species, banana, orange, pineapple, jujube, longan, guava, jackfruit, palm tree, and many other veggies.
so I cannot probably choose one and not to eat others, hehehehe 