The shu mei are extra awesome this year. Sweet as hell. I think the heat has done them good.
3 Likes
If you peel a wax apple the taste is totally different, like soft sugar cane
What is a Wax Apple? Do you know the Chinese name?
Oh, ok! Later I saw one of the posts above pointing this out:
Any forumosan fans of Taiwan’s awesome mangoes and other tasty summer fruits?
If so, expect less of them this year as severe water shortages have had damaging impact on crops including fruits, tea, and some vegetables too:
The production of mangoes, tea leaves, plums and onions has been hit hardest, the data showed.
The shortage has damaged 53 percent of the production of improved mango cultivars, meaning 977 hectares have not yielded fruit and losses have reached NT$307.8 million, it showed.
As for farms growing locally developed mango cultivars, 34 percent of planted areas have been affected, with losses reaching NT$23 million, the data showed.
Source: Farmers lose NT$400m amid water shortage - Taipei Times
Guy
2 Likes
Durian lovers: durian is now in season and available here (imported)! I’ve been buying some over the last week at the Yongchun Market. There are two stalls there that sell it.
2 Likes
I guess they are easy to find. Just follow your nose.
Actually, I don’t really mind the smell of durian. it’s better than a pig farm, for example.
And that is why this thread is not called “Taiwan’s Awesome Pig Farms!” 
Guy
1 Like
The ones I saw around Kaohsiung were from Vietnam. Did you bump into Malaysian varieties?
No, the ones I’ve been buying are all from Thailand. I’m also looking for the ones from Malaysia.
I just passed by some vendors at the exit of Yongning MRT.
The smell is almost impossible to ignore…
Mango season is upon us. And to Taiwanese tastes, aiwen (in English, Irwin) mangoes are a default choice. We know this variety came from Florida, USA in the postwar period. But how did it gain such popularity in Taiwan?
In his column today, the awesome Han Cheung tells the story of one man in Tainan who helped to make this happen.
Guy
2 Likes
I love these dried hawthorns from 7-11, but haven’t seen actual hawthorn fruit. Also they have dried waxberry (which is covered in sugar) and I read the fruit itself is really good, but I dunno where to get ahold of it
I want to try fruits that I can’t get in the US, even at the Asian market
2 Likes
The lychee are exceptional this year. Got a box of 玉荷包 at work. Loved it so much we got more of the same kind at Costco tonight.
2 Likes
Waxberry grow wild, for example I know at least one footpath where I’ve seen them on the ground in early May. Trouble is that unlike mulberries they seem to grow so high that the fruits are out of reach. I bought some from a stall by a path in Yangmingshan about ten years ago, and I bought some from Shuangcheng Night Market but again years ago.
Because other than being sweet AF, it has no other redeeming quality. 
1 Like
Are those the smaller red ones? I definitely prefer the larger yellow ones, which I thought were native.
Mangoes are not “native” to Taiwan.
For a quick primer on how at least two varieties arrived here, have a look at the Han Cheung article linked above.
Guy
1 Like
The green unripe mango I got at the market and lazily allowed to ripen in the fridge for a week was much tastier than the red mangoes around now.
2 Likes