Taiwan's Awesome Fruits!

One coworker just “found” that the tree in our grounds had some kumquats. Very generously, she shared her discovery with others. Now I have a handful of fresh kumquats on my candy dish. :smiley:

It’s mulberrry season, has been for a few weeks. Makes great juice, and ice-cream. They’re all over town, and the fruit flies are all over the mulberries. Bought in a load, and frozen them up for the summer. There’s no room in the frigo for anything else. All I got to do now is get rid of those damned flies.

Not only that they are used in Taiwan for two other purposes. PiPa is the Chinese name for Kumquat…PiPa Jiang is an excellent sauce famously made by Hakkas to accompany duck/chicken dishes. PiPa Gao is a cough syrup type concoction for sore throats and coughs.

[quote=“Nuit”]It’s mulberrry season, has been for a few weeks. Makes great juice, and ice-cream. They’re all over town, and the fruit flies are all over the mulberries. Bought in a load, and frozen them up for the summer. There’s no room in the frigo for anything else. All I got to do now is get rid of those damned flies.

[/quote]

Back home, we do these with milk. :lick: Batido de mora, mulberry milkshake

With water, ice, sugar, is a popular drink, too. Jams, ice cream, many uses.

Glad to hear it is becoming more popular here -and not just to feed silkworms, which are better in a stir-fry, crispy. :lick:

I tell you what my family in TW likes. Slice a big juicy papaya in half , scoop out the seeds and pour in some CArnation Condensed Milk, And enjoy with a spoon. YUMMY>

In Thailand I used to like to sit by the chao prya (spelling?) river at the Oriental Hotel and order the papaya split. Yes instead of a banana you get icecream on a half papaya. Super yummy (bad for diet though).

No! Fruits are great for your diet! They add lots of fiber. (OK, maybe a bit too much sugar, especially with condensed milk, but a lot less than a chocolate sundae, don’t you think?

Every year when the mulberries are in season, you can buy bottled mulberry syrup at the markets. I always put in a few for the off-season. Fantastic on pancakes or on those little round shortcakes sold at 7-11. Add a scoop of icecream to the shortcakes. No wonder I’,m too fat.
I found some wine DIY sites online for mulberry wine but when it came to waiting for 2 years, I went and bought some Merlot. I’m not that patient.

Lychees and mangoes coming soon!!!

Mangoes already on sale, 45nts each… :astonished:

Not only that they are used in Taiwan for two other purposes. PiPa is the Chinese name for Kumquat…PiPa Jiang is an excellent sauce famously made by Hakkas to accompany duck/chicken dishes. PiPa Gao is a cough syrup type concoction for sore throats and coughs.[/quote]

Just checked one of the books we have here. What we call nispero brasileno o japones in Spanish is called loquat in English. The kumquat is like a mini orange and is the one from the New Year trees -and the trees outside our office. The loquat, which has sweet/sour skin and a big seed inside, is eaten raw or preserved -we had a tree of this one back home.

Now I’m confused. :s

You are right, loquat is actually PiPa, a small pear shaped citrus fruit. Kumquats are JinJi in Chinese…whoops.

Organic mulberry jam can be got from organic stores, good stuff and not too expensive!

Kumquat is a citrus fruit, not loquat. As for the cough concoction, Pipa Gao, I believe it only uses the loquat leaves; the sweetness comes from honey.

[quote=“tommy525”]I tell you what my family in TW likes. Slice a big juicy papaya in half , scoop out the seeds and pour in some CArnation Condensed Milk, And enjoy with a spoon. YUMMY>

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Like it chopped up tossed with lemon juice and a bit of sugar!

Lian-wu ! Yum. Never seen it outside this island.
Litchi - till I nose bleed (trust me, when you eat 2 kg continuously, you’ll nosebleed).
Dragon fruit - don’t think it’s local, but yummy!

Heard from news that mangos are going to be expensive this year because of the weather. 60% decrease in production this year apparently.

[quote=“Icon”]Back home, we do these with milk. Batido de mora, mulberry milkshake
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like the name, batido de mora :lick:. Will certainly be trying a few of those this summer. Maybe add dou-jiang instead of milk. But right now, with this cloudy and cool weather, I’m getting in as many hot mulberry juice drinks as I can - going down very very well.

I super miss the awesome local TW mango. Not the big kind thats red and green (those are good too, but not as good), but the littler ones. Man there is nothing like those in the world.

I also super miss the longans (dragoneyes), those are incredible. I miss the leicee too, as well as the lienwu . and that custard apple thing in taitung.

i miss the taiwan pomelo too (although later they imported ones from thailand and those are great too).

the papayas are great too. and even the starfruit juice, thats pretty cool.

Obasan tales. I’ve eaten kilos back to back for days on end, weeks even, and never suffered more than a desire for more.

Well, they can give you the runs, but so can too much of anything good :wink:

Obasan tales. I’ve eaten kilos back to back for days on end, weeks even, and never suffered more than a desire for more.[/quote]

Then I must have an obasan body at 15 yo, coz that’s when I started nosebleeding on my leechee peeling hands on about my third kilo of the day on the third or fourth day. :lick:

[quote=“Tempo Gain”][quote=“tommy525”]I tell you what my family in TW likes. Slice a big juicy papaya in half , scoop out the seeds and pour in some CArnation Condensed Milk, And enjoy with a spoon. YUMMY>

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Like it chopped up tossed with lemon juice and a bit of sugar![/quote]

Thanks for the good ideas. I bought one over the weekend and was going to just mix it in the blender with milk, ice and honey, but maybe I’ll try one of your ideas.

Kumquats, unfortunately, appear to be out of season now. I keep seeing them and getting excited, then realizing I’m only seeing yellow cherry tomatoes, a pale comparison.