Strange and exotic fruit

One thing that struck me when I first came to Taiwan was the large amount of fruit available everywhere. If you are feeling too hot after walking in the summer heat, you will no doubt find a stand selling cut fruit to cool you down (served in a small plastic bag with a toothpick). In a night market you can get not just different types of teas but also freshly-made smoothies from whatever fruit are available. And rather than buy fruit in the supermarket, most Taiwanese choose to buy their fruit in shops dedicated to selling just fruit, open 24 hours.

But personally, I don't go out of my way to buy fruit. I buy fruit on my way home at a stand which sells it. I used to buy apples and oranges because I wasn't familiar with the local fruit, till one day they didn't have apples (usually imported from Korea, Japan, or the US).

the fruit stand by my house, here selling mandarin oranges, pineapples, watermelons, etc...

Upon the suggestion of the shop clerk I instead got some bala, as it is known in Taiwanese or, for the rest of us, guava. Guava can be hard like an apple or mushy like a banana, depending on the type and how long you let it ripen. It has hard seeds inside it which you can eat or spit out. Its taste is slightly sour and a little sweet. I wonder why I only had guava juice and never the real fruit before coming to Taiwan.

guava and wax apples

The other day for the first time I bought all local fruit- guava and wax apples. Wax apples have a nice crunchy consistency not unlike a fresh watermelon. The flavor is zesty and sweet.

Taiwan has a large array of fruit you would never find in your standard Western super market: dragon fruit (which taste a little like kiwi fruit), star fruit (looks cool but not my favorite taste), pomelos (a very big citrus fruit), jujubes (looks like a small apple) and more.

For more information on fruit in Taiwan, check out this site, brought to you by the Taiwanese government office in New York.