Saturday, July 03, 2010

Things I Miss About Shenzhen (5)

Lychees!

I'm reminded of lychee season (though it usually starts in early June), and I really miss seeing them for sale on almost every corner of Shenzhen. Plus, there was the crowd around the lychees at Carrefour, which prompted me to avoid shopping at peak hours (which was almost anytime of day).

It's possible to get lychees, and other tropical Asian fruit, here in Jersey City, but it's prohibitively expensive. The cheapest I've seen is $5 for a pound. Fortunately, I took a trip to Chinatown and found lychees at a more reasonable price of $2 per pound. They're definitely not as good as they were in Shenzhen--the pits are larger in the varieties sold here and they're not as sweet.

I was tempted to make some lychee sangria like I did in Shenzhen, but that would require me to not eat all the lychees I bought. I also enjoyed making the sangria with dragon fruit, which is much more expensive in the US than in Asia (usually $5 for one).

On the bright side, I don't have to deal with the extreme heat and humidity of Shenzhen this time of year, which is worsened by the nonstop rain.

2 comments:

jhuber7672 said...

Even in Florida, we'd be lucky to find lychee for $5 per pound, and they're grown here! They make a nice treat.

Steve said...

I remember eating Lychees in Viet Nam. You could get them on many street corners there too. I also have a hard time finding them and when I do they're expensive. By the way, Lychee Sangria sounds like it would be really good.