Hong Kong Recipes: The Lychees of Lingnan

By mid-May, wet markets start to carry them: bunches of round, red, greenish and yellow lychee fruit, often sold in bundles tied together by the stems, with their green, lanceolate leaves adding an extra touch of spring beauty. Locally grown lychees ripen a bit later in the year, but by the second and third week of June, the branches of lychee trees around town are full of these red baubles, like unseasonable summery Christmas trees.

Next time you indulge in this juicy treat — breaking the thin woody skin to access the luscious white flesh inside, getting your fingers sticky and biting around the shiny oblong seed in the centre in order to get the last bit of sweet fruit into your mouth — you may be happy to know that you are consuming something that is not only seasonal and local, but an important part of southern Chinese culture.

According to a comprehensive study conducted at the University of Buffalo, lychees enchanted the palate of our ancestors so much, it was domesticated twice, in two different parts of China where it grew endemically: once in southern Yunnan and again on the island of Hainan. From there, lychees spread throughout Guangdong and Fujian, where they encountered ideal weather and soil conditions. 

Though they are popular throughout China — and indeed around the world — lychees have also become closely associated with Cantonese culture and cuisine. They are one of the “four great fruits of Lingnan” (ling5 naam4 sei3 daai6 ming4 gwo2 嶺南四大名果) together with papayas, bananas and pineapples, fruits commonly grown and consumed in Hong Kong, and often present in local cuisine – especially in ice cream, desserts, and cold beverages. 

Lychees are known in Cantonese as lai6 zi1 (荔枝), and the scientific name of these delightful fruits is Litchi chinensis. They belong to the soapberry family (sapindaceae in Latin) which comprises more than 2,000 plants. Some of their well known cousins include longans, which are smaller in size compared to lychees, with a thin, pale brown-green peel, and rambutans, which are easily recognisable by its bright red and green, spikey shell that makes them look a little hairy. Although rambutans also originated in southern China, they are more commonly grown in Southeast Asia, as they require a hotter climate year-round. 

All of these fruits are characterised by a fleshy aril, which is the scientific name to indicate a seed covering — the juicy flesh we consume — which is often described as a botanical stratagem to induce animals to swallow the fruit whole, seed included, and disperse it in nature in order for the plant to reproduce. (The lychee seed is a little too big for this purpose, and it is usually spread by falling on the ground.) Soapberry trees can be easily overlooked when their branches are not full of fruits: they have a darkish, compact crown of leaves, distinctively knobbly trunks, and they might appear like any nondescript subtropical greenery. They grow up to 10 metres in height and can provide a pleasant shade. Should you wish to grow one at home, remember they require constant humidity – luckily not a problem in Hong Kong.

By mid-July, finding fresh lychees in the market becomes increasingly difficult, and soon we are left to wait ten more months in order to revel again in that sweet, fleshy, juicy, and sticky delight. What to do when you miss lychees, then? If you live in Hong Kong, you actually have a number of possibilities. You can go back to that sweet, rose-petal taste by buying dried or tinned lychees, which can be used in various ways in the kitchen. Or you can seek out the many lychee-flavoured sodas and confectioneries. 

Lychees are not only prized for their flavour. A careful look at classical Chinese paintings by southern artists shows a strong presence of lychee trees, as this beautiful tree is so deeply local that it often symbolises Lingnan culture itself. The name Lingnan (ling5 naam4 嶺南) literally means “south of Nanling,” referring to the Nanling Mountains that separate the Pearl River Delta from the Yangtze River basin. It encompasses the region that now consists of Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, Guangxi, Hainan and northern Vietnam – the same area as the ancient Nanyue kingdom, which lasted from 204 BC to 111 BC before coming under Chinese control.

According to the New Book of Tang (san1 syu1t ong4 新書唐), one of the official histories of the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the Tang emperor Xuanzong (685–762), madly in love with his concubine Yang Guifei — a legendary beauty — set up a horse-relay system that allowed lychees transported to court (located in present-day Xi’an) at the greatest speed possible, in order to satisfy Yang’s taste for this southern fruit. That marked the rise of the lychee’s depiction in art, interchangeably as a symbol of the south, summer or luxury. 

A set of paintings, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, show three lychees and birds, painted in the Song Dynasty (960–1279) from Tang originals now likely lost. Closer to home, in the collection of the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, there is a very beautiful 1791 painting by artist Xie Lansheng called “Lychee Tree,” which shows a prominent tree with its branches full of ripe red lychees near a watercourse, with rocks and faint mountains on the backdrop. 

Once you bear in mind that this fruit is celebrated as a symbol of Lingnan culture, you will start spotting it in ceramics, paintings, wooden and lacquer boxes when you visit a museum, or as a constant flavour in convenience store and supermarket shelves, and feel an extra connection with your surroundings.

And should you find yourself with too many lychees to consume, here is an easy version of a drink, often served in cha chaan tengs, that can quench your thirst during the hot weeks when the fruit is at its peak – although today many places serve a simplified version of this drink by diluting lychee syrup with water. 

Recipe: Lychee soda

Ingredients

• Flesh of two or three ripe lychees 
• Three or four mint leaves 
• 1 teaspoon of honey or agave syrup (or more, according to taste)
• One 330ml can of cold soda water
• Slice of lemon (optional)
• Ice cubes 

Preparation

In a tall glass, place the lychees, add your sweetener of your choice and the ice cubes. Pour the cold soda water, add the mint leaves, stir well, and enjoy. Add the slice of lemon to add another layer of flavour.

Don’t forget to eat the fruit when you’re done with your drink!