Oh, the outside is chestnut brown and they don't have to be peeled--skin is like an apple skin.

Is it a longan? It's Vietnamese, if it is.

Oh! oh! oh!
*raises hand*

That sounds kind of like a lychee to me. I'm not so sure about the skin part though.

Nope. Inside is like an apple. White flesh--not jelly-like at all. If you shut your eyes you'd literally think you were eating a tiny apple.

I bought a bag of those things in Beijing and have been in love with them ever since.

Do you think it was a jujube?

Hmm. Okay, I just looked it up in my Melissa's Guide (dunno why I didn't think of that before) and apparently it's called a Chinese Date or a Jujube. The description in the book is dead on, but when I search, I find something that says it's got a date like texture and the skin is wrinkled--mine don't.

Weird.

On preview, yay halonine! That's a better picture than the one I found. Huh. I guess I'll leave some on the counter and see what happens, but the non-english-speaking clerk said, "eat now" when I said "Ready?" Weird.

halonine, thanks for that link. Good page. It also lists "egg fruit" which I'm desperate to find but can't. I'm making an Ask post this week with a "where can I buy...?" list that'll contain that one.

Oh, and anyone curious about Melissa's.

You're welcome dobbs! I found it while trying to answer your question. Good luck finding the egg fruit!

I remembered having fresh jujubes once... they seemed like tiny alien apples. They just showed up in my parents' refrigerator, and I didn't get around to asking what they were.