1. BBQ Party
A few weeks ago, we went to a BBQ/house party. There was so much delicious food. I wish I took more photos, but I was too busy eating. Here are the cookies I baked:
I also managed to capture this delicious pork belly before people dug in and a beautiful pineapple cake.
2. Wax apples from my garden.
My little wax apple tree produced 2 dozen wax apples this year! I was so excited. Wax apples/mountain apples/rose apples, they have quite a few different names. It’s a tropical fruit that is extremely hard to find in the US. In Taiwan, it’s very popular (蓮霧, pronounced lembu or lian-woo) and it’s my favorite fruit. It’s a bell shaped red fruit. When you bite in, it’s very crunchy, similar to an apple. The water content is very high and when ripe, the fruit has a pleasant sweetness. The interior texture is much looser, with the core section being almost spongy.
Usually they are a deep red. Mine were more of a rosy pink, but they actually taste as sweet as the ones I’ve had in Taiwan.
I planted many tropical fruit trees this year but this was the only one to have so much success. I was really surprised because the tree was so small. They need a pretty warm climate, and I guess Southern California is warm enough. I first got the idea when I read about a farmer in Temple City that was selling wax apples from his orchard. So after we bought our house, we went looking for wax apples trees and I found them at a Taiwanese run orchard in Orange called Green Mart. They actually are the ones supplying the fruit trees you sometimes see at Ranch 99, but the selection is much better at their Orange location.
3. Food Gifts
Here are some yummy food gifts I recently received.
Cookies from the Brown Butter Cookie Co.
These were a gift from CC. I was so excited because I love brown butter
Cookies and macarons from Renand’s
The cookies were good, but I was especially impressed with the macarons. Definitely some of the best I’ve tasted in a while.
Jackfruit flavored cookies
These were from my friend S who just returned from Thailand. These crisp wafer cookies have the slightest hint of jackfruit flavor.
4. My book is out!
After months of waiting, my book is finally here. People started receiving them this past week and have been sending me emails or tagging me on social media with photos. I get such a thrill when someone sends me a photo of their shiny new book copy. Keep them coming! Thank you to everyone who purchased my book! I really am so touched and grateful.
By the way, if you want to win a copy of the book, the publisher is currently running 4 giveaways (ends Sunday night) which includes a copy of the book along with a fun mug set!
And if you want to purchase my book, here’s the list of online retailers.
5. Highlights from the blog.
In case you missed these: The most popular recipe posts on the blog this week were snow skin mooncakes (Mid-Autumn Festival is September 8th) and a resurgence in popularity for my sriracha bacon wrapped onion rings (one of my personal favorites as well).
The most popular dining posts were my visits to D&C Tofu House (San Diego) and Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles (Los Angeles).
Happy Sunday everyone!
exotica nursery in vista, ca is a great source for tropical plants and fruit trees! my family used to stop and check out the inventory nearly every time they made the drive back up to the bay area after dropping me off at ucsd.
thank you! my neighbor actually told me about this too, but I haven’t had a chance to visit. Also Mr. K said we have enough trees for this year. I did go a little overboard. But for next spring, I’ll definitely go visit that one! I would love some lychee.
Thanks for posting pics of your wax apples. We were going to get a tree, but didn’t know anyone whose had fruited. Looks like this is our next addition. How long did you have to wait for fruit?
it was super fast! we bought a small tree in the Spring and a few months later it had clusters of buds of wax apples. I was really amazed at how many it produced.
I spot my photo of your books! 🙂
I have never seen or tasted a wax apple before. They look beautiful.
Glad that you liked the cookies from Brown Butter Cookie Co. We were there recently (Paso Robles location) on a recent road trip. Glad that you liked the sable cookies and the macarons from Renaud’s in Santa Barbara. Those were some of the best macs I’ve tried – texture/taste/appearance wise.
I loved everything! thank you again! and yes, I had to include your photo!!