Malay Apple - Mountain Apple?

[gado_gado]

Wife is desperately looking for this fruit for years. She used to eat in back when she lived in the amazon region, and was able to find it again in Hawaii (Maui, road to Hana).

We live in LA for years, but were never able to find it in any market here.

Help help?

[soulimar]

My neighbor just mysteriously brought me a bag of them lol. I had to look it up online to see what they were. Thus finding this thread also. You want them? ;)

[Clinton]

Have never seen "mountain apples" here on the mainland. In fact they are hardly ever found in Hawaii where they used to be quite plentiful at one time. The flesh is very fragile as well as the dark red skin on the outside. Rose apples are a different fruit which has a yellow skin and attracts fruit fly larvae as I remember. Both are never exported probably due to this? My travels to Hawaii has never seen any of these fruits offer in any commercial store except for an occasional vendor at the local swap meets.

[cheson74]

I have two of these trees growing here in Hawaii. When it flowers, there's a carpet of pinkish flowers everywhere. The fruit isn't bad but kinda bland. Wish I could ship you a big box.

[smalaccense]

The malay apple is not cultivated as a crop outside of being a local cash crop or in backyards. It bruises too easily and discolors within days of being picked from the tree which makes it a difficult fruit to sell on a market scale.

You probably won't be able to find or get it in the states.

[film_score]

I was just in Thailand and had some (they called it Rose Apple). I liked it. It kind of struck me as tasting like rhubarb/apple.

Anyways, I've never seen 'em here in the states but I'll keep an eye out for 'em...

[gado_gado]

Thanks... I was in Little Saigon just a few weeks ago and saw some very interesting fruits, but couldn't spot mountain apples. Next time i might ask around though, and refer to it with it's thai name (might be more familiar to them).

Fascinating the fact that Brazilians from the Amazon region use the same malay name. It's pretty unknown anywhere else in Brazil. I'm from Rio, and my wife always told me about it... and the first time i tried was actually in a pretty remote region of Hawaii.

[Ha_YnDeCuzine]

Aloha, I have not the slightest idea of how to export untreated fruits to the mainland USA. If you could figure that out and we are able to make arrangments where it is of no cost to me. I will send you a half dozen at a time. Only thing is that you had missed the first blooming and flowers are beginning to bud. You may have to wait three months or more; but that should allow you the time to answer my exporting questions. Please remember the time of spoilage. The fruit never ripens once pulled from the tree.

Aloha Ke Akua,

Ha-Y-N De Cuizine

[mlgb]

In Jamaica they're called Otaheite Apples (which apparently is frowned upon by botanists). Our neighbhors in Kingston had a huge tree so I had no shortage of these growing up! I have never seen nor heard of any being available in markets in over 30 years around LA, but in addition to the Chinese markets, perhaps Vietnamese or Filipino markets would be an option.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/mo...

[WBGuy]

Check the Vietnamese fruit shop in the strip mall at the corner of Bolsa and Magnolia in the city of Westminster. I could have sworn I saw some small ones there a few years back.

Basically if they don't have them, then nobody does.

[gado_gado]

Mmm.... i guess noone knows... let me just add that the fruit is called "jambo" in brazil.
maybe it helps :(

[bulavinaka]

I'm just shooting in the dark here as I've never tried this fruit, but have you folks tried sourcing it in the Chinese or Vietnamese markets in SGV or OC? I never thought I'd see fruits like mangosteen imported here but now Chowhounds have reported several places selling it. The Vietnamese community seems very active not only in selling various tropical fruits, but in some areas you can find plants and trees of these once-exotic fruits as well. What you're looking for originated in what is now Malaysia and was then introduced to other tropical regions worldwide, so markets that attract Southeast Asians would be my first guess.

[WBGuy]

You /might/ get lucky in the fruit market in little Saigon, I think at Magnolia and Bolsa, but don't get too hopeful.

It's otherwise known as "rose apple", "jambu" in Malay, or "chomphuu" in Thailand. I haven't been able to find it here, but if you do find it do let us know.

[recovering_vegetarian]

Wow, I totally forgot all about this fruit... Used to pick them on hikes when I was a kid in Hawaii. I've never seen them in a store, and definitely never seen them in California--but then again, I never searched. Good luck, and please let us know if you find them!