New fruit! (to me anyway)

The great thing about traveling is all the new things you learn and new foods to experience! Ted and I took a stroll into the village to go to the grocery store and a few other quick stops. We were walking through the produce section and I saw some thorny things that looked like a nut or something. It was a lichee, a fruit.This is taken from www.foodreference.com ...
Litchi, Lychee, Lichee
The fruit, commonly called a litchi nut, are about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter when fresh, and have a red brittle shell, with white translucent flesh and a single large seed. Litchi are eaten fresh or dried, and are also available canned in syrup. The flesh is fragrant and sticky, sweet and juicy; the dried fruit has a smoky taste somewhat like a raisin. A versatile fruit, they are excellent in fruit salads, sweet and sour sauces, and dessert sauce. The may be used in stir fries, salads, poultry dishes, and even served over ice cream.
I've never seen one or even heard of it! Remember that I live in the Midwest and we are pretty basic foods type of people, nothing exotic here!

here's a bowl of them:

To peel, you break open the top stem and start peeling the hard shell to reveal a very soft, slightly slimy white meaty flesh.

Once the outer shell is off (it's not as hard as a nut shell, but still a bit hard), you eat the white flesh until you get to the hard pit, which you do not eat. It tasted a bit like sweetened grapefruit. I liked it, it was very good. but there is not that much fruit on it for the work, which is why Ted's husband doesn't like it! LOL Too much work. You can buy them in a can, but like anything, it doesn't even really taste like the fresh fruit.