Lychee Me

Organic lychees only come once a year, and look, I have a whole box!

There are two bad things about fresh lychees--one, the seed is poisonous, and it just seems weirdly risky putting the fruit in your mouth, nibbling around the seed (like with an olive) and spitting the seed out. It's not as though you're EATING the poisonous seed, but still, it's in your mouth. Kind of like those people who swallow swords or put venomous snakes in their mouths--they're not EATING the sword or the snake, but it's freaky that it's IN THEIR MOUTHS.

The other, much less weird but still annoying thing about lychees is peeling them. Their skin is tough and leathery, and you have to jab your fingernail into the skin to make a starter hole, and then you can peel the skin off like the shell of a hardboiled egg. After a while, the jabbing starts to make your fingertip feel tender, right under the nail. Then you have to switch to a steak knife for the jabbing. Lychees are messy and labor-intensive...a lot of seed for a little juicy flesh...kind of like pomegranates...
but hell, they're only here once a year and they're super delicious!