How to Eat Fresh Lotus Seeds 新鮮蓮子

Fresh Lotus Seeds,lotus seeds, how to eat,新鮮蓮子, lotus seed pods

Dear readers, can you guess what this is? An alien landscape, you say? Why yes, it does look quite like the weirdly pocked surface of some far off, mysterious planet. With a gleaming round space pod just landed in the middle of the bumpy green landscape.

As you've undoubtedly guessed already, this is not at all a glimpse of a far off world . Rather this is the image of something close at hand, a rather common earth occurrence, its humble beauty perhaps taken for granted. Tis the closeup of the seed pod of the wonderfully multipurposed lotus flower. We recently got to try the fresh lotus seed, plucked straight from the pod, for the first time. Man-oh, it was divine! Seriously, I would have never guessed that it was so good.

The lotus flower (photo by T. Voekler)

I admire the lotus flower 蓮花 so much. Sprouting up from the sticky mud of the river bed, this hardy aquatic plant produces flowers of inspiring grace and elegance. Mind you, this flower is not just about good looks. The flower, seed, leaf and stem are used for healing in traditional medicine.

Foodwise, the lotus root is used for stir fries (check out our recipe for stir fry lotus root) and soups. The fragrant dried lotus leaf is used to wrap meat and/or rice before steaming (see our recipe for lotus leaf steamed chicken). The lotus seeds, usually found in dried form, are used to make traditional Chinese desserts soups and pastry fillings (see our recipes for lotus seed egg tea and homemade lotus seed paste).

This is the sight that started the whole thing. We were in Guangzhou 廣州. It was late and we were hangry...again. What can I say, we get hungry when we be traveling. We stumbled on this food cart, piled high with fresh fruits of all kinds: plums, mangosteens, jujubes... Woo-hoo! And then there was the lotus seed pods!! WOW! What the heck?! What were these lotus seed pods doing on a food cart selling fruit? I have never seem them presented as fruit. Actually I've only seen the seed pods in lakes and pools where the lotus flowers bloom.

As for the lotus seeds themselves, we have only ever seen dried lotus seeds. Which are wonderful when used for in Chinese desserts and for pastry filling.

I asked the lady in charge of the fruit cart what the fresh lotus seed tasted like. She assured me that the fresh lotus seed had a refreshingly clear and slightly sweet taste. We purchased one to try out. Boy-o-boy I wish that we had gotten more...

Back at the hotel we gave our beautous lotus seed pod a good rinse under running water. The texture of the pod is kinda spongy with the seeds suspended in their own compartments. To access the seeds just tear at the spongy pod to free the seeds.

The seed that we dug free from the pod was a light green in color. At first I was not sure. Was this it? Should we just pop this in our mouths? We recalled that the dried lotus seeds are usually white, so we figured that there must be a next step.

After a bit of digging with fingernails we realized that the green bit was a skin around the inner creamy white seed. Dig in enough to grab the skin and start peeling!

The inner creamy white lotus seed with the green skin completely removed. Now that fresh lotus seed is ready to eat. Pop that beautiful creamy white seed in your mouth and try out this fruity? nutty? delight.

Actually, this fresh lotus seed doesn't taste much like either fruit or nut. The texture is crisp and delightful. The taste is of the most refreshing light sweetness. It was so good! Like the best candy ever but at the lowest level of delightful sweetness and highest level of pleasing crisp texture.

This is the pod, emptied of all the seeds, gobbled down by us, hangry goblins of amazing midnight snacks. I can't believe how yummilicious fresh lotus seeds are! Why was I not informed about their deliciousness before?! Verdict: AWESOMELY delicious and I'm ever so bummed to be back home in HK and not sure at all if we can find these fresh lotus seeds here. 😭

Nevermind, just give us a shout out if ya'll find these in HK and be sure and try some if you encounter these lovely, lovely lotus seed pods on your own travels. Best food luck on all your food journeys!

Traveling Tidbits at The Hong Kong Cookery: