Modern Las Vegas Buffets are a great opportunity to try something new. Nowadays, they often include more exotic cuisine like Sushi or Menudo, or . . . Sorbet. Okay, I'll stop harping on the Sorbet, but that said, today I tried something at Red Rock Casino that I have never eaten before. I had . . . drumroll please . . . a . . . Lychee!
They look pretty unappetizing sitting in a bowl between the pork buns and the fortune cookies. I read the sign a few times -- Lychees, lychees, lychees -- scouring my memory for what they may be. Sort of white-ish lumps that could be a fruit, or vegetable, or even a sort of pickled scallop or something . . . being of Asian orientation (they eat some pretty weird stuff over there) . . . sometimes its hard to tell. I was leaning toward a fruit, something sort of sweet more than tangy, but I was hoping for tartness. Whatever it was, it appeared to have come out of a can, packed in syrup.
I gingerly took one to add to sushi/fried shrimp plate I was orchestrating, added a fortune cookie for luck and headed back to my table.
I cut the flesh, and noticed that it had been pitted, indicating that yes, indeed, it was a fruit. The taste was sweet, not tart, and I was somewhat disappointed. The closest thing I could compare it to was a white plum, or maybe a kumquat.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good, either . . . sort of the Asian equivalent of canned peaches. And everybody knows that canned peaches, cottage cheese and jello is the sign of a bad buffet.
Mission accomplished, I moved on to the fried shrimp. Still I was proud of myself for expanding my epicurian horizons. I had eaten a lychee and lived to tell the tale.
Next visit, I might even sample the menudo.
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