Lian pu (莲蒲) / lian wu (莲雾) / wax apples / rose apples are the best fruit in the world. I think they might be my favorite food. I love them so so so much.
They’re light and airy inside, almost like a fluffy styrofoam – not the most appetizing description.. but it’s so hard to describe. Maybe imagine a less watery, lighter watermelon. The taste is light, delicate, sweet (and maybe almost floral?) and so refreshing – I could have a plate of them in one sitting. If you shake one, you’ll usually hear a light, satisfying clunking noise from the couple of seeds inside. Eating this fruit makes me indescribably happy. I’m not sure if it’s the fruit alone, or the memory of a simpler time when I got to enjoy eating them without worry as a kid, or maybe a combination of the two.
The first time I had lian pu was during our first trip to Taiwan in 2001. I don’t have much memory of them then, but I do know that I enjoyed them so much that on our next trip in 2005, our Jiù Ma knew I enjoyed them so much that she made sure to have some freshly cut for me to eat every day. ♡
I think the 2005 trip is when we started bringing lian pu with us for the flight home back to the US (making sure to eat them before we de-boarded of, course).
We went back in 2009 and, although I can’t remember each lian pu I had, I’m sure I enjoyed plenty of them. Below is a photo of them fresh at some markets:
The trouble with lian pu is that they’re very, very difficult to get in the US. From the 2009 Taiwan trip to 2019, I only had fresh lian pu two times. Once, we miraculously found them at our local Chinese grocery store in the suburbs of Chicago. Another time, my mom says an owner of a grocery store did a special order and we were included in that.
In late 2019, I was going through a really tough time in my life. One day, my mom texted me the following photo:
I couldn’t believe it – I desperately asked my mom how she managed to get them (my parents live in Illinois). At that point in time, the idea of eating lian pu again felt like it somehow help me get through that rough time.
It turned out, our family friend’s son’s girlfriend’s family have a lian pu tree at their house in Orange County, and shipped them out to that girlfriend, who shared them with our family friend. When I found that out, I lost hope that I’d be able to get a hold of any myself. But when my mom mentioned that I asked to her friend, she very generously offered to share some with my mom so that she could ship them to me. ♡ So the lian pu went from California to Illinois and back again. They were smaller than the ones we’d eaten in Taiwan, but just as delicious. Below is a photo of the ones I brought to work to share with a friend who’d never had them before:
So if lian pu are so difficult to get, how did I get this most recent batch? At some point in the pandemic, I came across these dehydrated Rose Apple Chips by Suncore Foods and immediately ordered them to try. They’re nothing close to the fresh fruit, but have just enough of the flavor to satisfy some nostalgia for the fruit. After finding those, I started searching the internet to see if any other brands carried something similar to try.
That’s when I came across the fresh wax apples on Miami Fruit. It seemed absolutely too good to be true, that I could just order fresh lian pu on the internet like that. And the more I read on, even though I was desperate to get some, the more I thought it really was too good to be true. The page said “This fruit is NOT currently in season and will ship when it becomes available. Placing a PRE-ORDER reserves your spot on the waiting list for the next seasonal harvest.” It didn’t mention when the previous harvest was, and didn’t specify a timeframe for the next one. The website mentioned restrictions for shipping to California as well (CA has really strict rules about importing fruit from other states). Anyway with so few details and such a high price, I honestly figured it might be some kind of scam (although a very very specific one lol), and didn’t try my luck.
Months later, at the end of May, I got a shipping notification from UPS saying that a package from Miami Fruit would be arriving soon. My dad had found the same website that I had, and my parents tried their luck by placing a pre-order. They didn’t tell me about it because they weren’t sure when or if I would ever receive the fruit, and they didn’t want to get my hopes up in case that happened. But I got them! ♡♡♡
They were delicious. I managed to make them last a week! ♡ I even brought some to share with two different friends who recently got houses around LA – my (not so) secret plan was to get them to fall in love with the fruit so that they’d let me buy them a tree to plant. 😂 But I also just wanted to let them try wax apples and share the joy I associate with them. Sharing fruit is definitely an Asian love language, and a true sign you care about someone. ♡
Anyway, I had to do a mini photoshoot of my precious babies haha. And of course write this post to detail my relationship to this fruit. I might be getting a new tattoo soon so the timing is perfect haha ~
