Taiwan: Number 10

Shuiguo, otherwise known as fruit. This may seem like an uninspiring topic for a countdown. Especially for a post that cracks my top 10. But it’s not. The fruit here is seriously good. Fruit is one of Taiwan’s largest exports. People travel to Taiwan just to eat the fruit. This aint the stuff they sell at Wal-Mart.

First step: Find the fruit

This is fun in itself. Sure you can buy fruit at the grocery store, but why would you? On street corners throughout Taiwan are fruit stands that vary in size and variety. But one thing is for sure, it’s fresh. None of that spray ripened fruit. Most fruits you buy last only a few days before going bad. But who cares, the stands are so convenient and cheap that stopping by once or twice a week is no big deal. You literally just park your scooter anywhere you want on the side of the road and there you are.

Second step: Decide what to buy

This is the hard part. How can you possibly make a decision? It’s all so good. (Well most of it) Opportunity cost comes into play here big time. What can I live without? Ill let you decide. Here are just some of the fruits I can remember right now.

-Pineapple, much sweeter than the stuff in America

-Apples

-Watermelon, both red and yellow. The yellow would be perfect for a Mizzou Tailgate.

-Oranges

-Mini-bananas, a quarter the size of a real banana, double the flavor.

-Kiwi, both green and gold. Gold is much sweeter than the green.

-Honeydew

-Passion fruit. Grows all year. We actually have an enormous passion fruit vine right outside our school that we can munch on.

-Lychee

-Guava. A Taiwan favorite that I only kind of like compared to the other fruit on the list.

-Star fruit

-Dragon fruit. Big fan!

- Wax apple. Many of the teachers at school love this. It’s just okay to me.

-Custard apple. Called Buddha head fruit and isn’t awesome

-Papaya. Best in papaya milk

-Pomegranate. Best in tea

-Grapes

-Nectarines

-Peaches

-Taiwanese plum. So yucky!

-Strawberries

-Durian. Oh Durian. Loved by few. Repulsive to most. This stinky fruit isn’t allowed on subways, or in most hotels. It literally smells awful. I triple bagged it and it still reeked. But surprisingly I kind of like it. It is a custardy texture and is mildly sweet. Any trip to Southeast Asia isn’t complete without eating Durian.

-Many others I am forgetting

But none of those compare to this next fruit. It tends to give me a slight allergic reaction when I eat too many, but that doesn’t stop me. In fact I am eating one right now. This fruit is good anytime, anyplace, in anyway. My particular favorite is on Shaved Ice. (A wonderful dessert that deserves it’s own blog post) The fruit that I am talking about is of course the Taiwanese Mango. So sweet and succulent that your mouth wants to explode when you eat it. Freaking good! I wasn't a fan of mango's when I left home. Now they are my favorite fruit. They are just so good here. Lucky for me, it’s mango season right now.

What’s even better is that all of this fruit is good for you…well, maybe not Durian. Chicks don’t dig it.