Waxapples
In the summer in the memories of childhood, my mother always bought a lot of waxapples (Syzygium samarangense), washed it, “carve” it (remove the stalk with a small knife), and put it in the refrigerator to let us eat freely; sweet and moist waxapples become an indispensable part of my childhood summer memories. But when I was young, I could eat it without knowing that the skin of the waxapples was very thin and it was easy to break. After the breakage, the mold would invade and rot from the cracks. It all depends on my mother to carve it so we can eat the sweet and delicious waxapples without worrying about eating mold.
Waxapple is native to the Malay Peninsula, and is also known as Nianwu, Roseapple, Lianwu, and Java Rosefruit. The Chinese “Lianwu” or “Nianwu” may be the Taiwanese transliteration of the Indonesian “jambu”; but the Indonesian word for waxapples should actually be “jambu air”, the translation lost “air” (Indonesian “water”).
Like mango, waxapple was introduced to Taiwan by the Dutch in the 17th century; because of its sweet and moist flavor, it became popular in Taiwan. In 2016, Taiwan produced more than 50,000 metric tons of waxapples. Pingtung County is the highest production area in Taiwan, with more than 70%; the second is Chiayi County. At present, Taiwan is famous for “Black Pearl”, “Black Diamond”, and “Black King Kong” cultivars, but they are actually the “Southern Pink Species” and its variants from bud mutation! There is also a “Thailand species” called “bullet waxapples”, but it actually comes from Indonesia! In addition, in 2014, the Agricultural Laboratory bred Tainong №3-”Brown Sugar Barbie” waxapples, known as the “LV of the waxapples”. “Brown Sugar Barbie’’ has three times the size of normal waxapples, and it is red and sweet, and it is not easy to crack. It immediately set off a whirlwind in the boutique fruit market.
The waxapples in my childhood are summer fruit. In recent years, with the advancement of agricultural biotechnology, farmers can make the waxapple trees bloom in advance because of the environmental pressure, so we can eat waxapples throughout the year.
In addition to the sweetness and deliciousness, Chinese medicine believes that the fruit, leaves and seeds of waxapples can be used as antipyretics, and the root is a diuretic. Some Chinese physicians even call waxapples the “king of fruits”!
