Photos of ''Longan/ Cat's Eye / Mata Kuching'' in our backyard

Longan / Cats's Eye / Mata Kuching

Source - Wikipedia and photos are taken in our backyard

Dimocarpus longan, commonly known as the longan is a tropical tree that produces edible fruit. It is one of the better-known tropical members of the soap berry family to which the lychee  also belongs. It is native to Southern Asia. It's available easily in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia.

The longan literally: "Dragon Eye / Cat's eye ", is so named because it resembles an eyeball when its fruit is shelled (the black seed shows through the translucent flesh like a pupil/iris). The seed is small, round and hard, and of an enamel-like, lacquered black. The fully ripened, freshly harvested shell is bark-like, thin, and firm, making the fruit easy to shell by squeezing the fruit out as if one is "cracking" a sunflower seed. 

The fruit is sweet, juicy and succulent in superior agricultural varieties and, apart from being eaten fresh, is also often used in Asian soups, snacks, desserts, and sweet-and-sour foods, either fresh or dried, sometimes canned with syrup. The taste is different from lychees; while longan have a drier sweetness, lychees are often messily juicy with a more tropical, sour sweetness.

The seed and the shell are not consumed.