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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Cat's eyes !

Mata Kuching(Cat's eyes) plant in my garden, very common fruit in Malaysia, read here if you don't know this fruit. My husband's plant this tree for two reasons, 1-shelter of his car which parking outside the house, 2-for eating. But he managed to achieve no 2!! The tree is too small to achieve no 1.



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-the flesh is very juicy and sweet, furthermore this is organic!!

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33 comments:

  1. Hi!

    How old is your mata kucing plant/tree? What's the height now?

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  2. Wow the last time I had mata kuching was like 20 something years ago. How come your mata kuching look more like longan? I remember the one I had the flesh were really thin :)

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  3. This is one of my Dad's favourite fruit! But it's difficult to find them here in Singapore now.

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  4. wah! ur longan very big lei. Can fight with Thai Longan liao.

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  5. Emily, I think about 6ft now.

    ICook4Fun, ya lor, mine look big ho, and the flesh is quite thick.

    Blessed homemaker, ya, SG has not much land liao.

    Jane,you saw my email to you? ya, big one.

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  6. Oh I love mata kuching...so sweet and juicy..I wish I had a tree of this :))

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  7. that really looks like an eye!!!!!!!

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  8. Yummy I miss mata kuching! I thought they call this dragon's eye. We always have dried dragon's eye drink in Chow Kit when I was still in Malaysia!

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  9. This is juicy and it's big loh..
    i miss this so much..

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  10. I love mata kucing, too!! So jealous you have the tree by your house! =P

    Pei-Lin

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  11. WOW! The colour of the mata kuching is very pretty! I remember I had few of these trees in Taiwan. Wonder mata kuching is the same as longan?

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  12. I thought mata kuching was more bumpy. This looks more like a regular longan to me.

    Whichever it is, they are very tasty fruit!

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  15. According to the link Sonia provided,
    Prof Wong, one of my lecturers in Uni, the longan doesn't fruit in Malaysia, of which is quite true. I've seen longan trees older than me never ever fruit, even if they flower, the flowers just never fruit. When I was small, I asked my parents why they never plant longan at home, cos we have 3 mango trees, they told me, longan never fruits in Malaysia. It's recently trees (trees planted less than 15 years ago) that are beginning to fruit. BTW there are even apples and yellow lemons in Sabah. *Roll eyes*
    Agriculture technology is getting better and better. That's all I can say.

    :)A summary from the link is : Mata Kuching is a type of longan but longan is not a type of mata kuching.

    Longan is not a local fruit, therefore, the locals might have used a local name mata kuching, which is the real local variety, to call the longan which is similiar but not the same.
    Example: Kangkung as we know here, are called Morning Glory in some neighbouring countries (From what I read in in the internet). We will not call it morning glory because we have a definate local name for it. But for people in other countries, it looks similiar, and scientifically, its genus is the same, Ipomea. So, others call it morning glory.

    Hope I'm not talking too much and I hope this clears the confusion, Longan or Mata Kuching.

    Oh BTW, sarawak mata kuchings are not found here, same goes for limau bintangor. Of which my friend calls pomelo, but to us peninsulans, that is no pomelo, pomelo is way way bigger

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  16. The fruit looks so juicy... I have never had this though:)

    By the way, I like your little place:)

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  17. incidentally my uncle just asked me last week whether i want to plant mata kucing or not since he has the 'baby' plants. i was hesitant as am afraid the tree will grow too large. maybe now i shld rethink :)

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  18. Oh sorry, to add to my comment above.. I think due to one of my deleted comments, to clarify more..
    This is indeed longan, but called mata kuching by locals due to the similarity to the real local variety.. In KL, u can see many Malay street vendors selling air mata kucing, which is actually dried longan infusion. The chinese dried longans :)So, u see, the local name for longans is mata kuching, altho from pomiculture point of view, mata kuching is longan, but longan is not mata kuching.
    A tiger is a cat, but a cat is not a tiger.

    Grrr... I'm being so long winded, but I just get long winded when issues like this come by, just like bayam and spinach issue. Or taro with yam.

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  19. Sonia, wah ... so lucky!!! Fresh, juicy, sweet AND organic? Good for you!

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  20. 那到底这是不是龙眼来的?

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  21. Looks just like longan, my favorite fruit.

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  22. Wah, nice leh, homegrown matakucing.....can I drop by to pluck some? he he he!

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  23. You are so lucky! I wish I have a cat's eyes tree too! I miss this.

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  24. Hi Sonia!!! These fruits look juicy and mouth watering! Sorry for not being able to drop by as often as usual... been really busy! Hehe...

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  25. Hi all, Thanks for stopping by my garden and have a juicy mata kuching, hehehe..

    Wendy, mata kuching=longan?

    Mia, no problem, so long you still remember me, hehehe..

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  26. Sonia..how u fertilize the Longan tree??
    It's really looked juicy and gemuk leh..geng!

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  27. I loveeeee mata kuching!! your mata kuching really look juicy and huge!! my mom planted few trees at her front yard but have no fruit..Must leanr from your hubby kung -fu!!

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  28. Yes Sonia,that is a longan.
    As said in my comments,
    Mata Kuching is the local malay name for all longans.
    The real local variety (mata kuching) is not like what u planted. U've planted longan, but called it like the locals do, mata kuching. But here, all longans are genericly called mata kuching.

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  29. is the flesh thick? i hav a longan tree but never get to eat the fruits bc the tree leans out and passersby pick them b4 we do :((

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  30. Plan no. 2 is good enough for me! Organic some more! Hahaha...

    I wonder if I can plant it here...hmmm...

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  31. same species but different varieties. although in the old classification they were grouped as different species.

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