Help with ID of weird Chinese cucurbit and Salak variety

[murraystevena2]

Hello below is a weird cucurbit that is for sale here in Beijing. I have never heard of it before and have no idea what it it. You drink the center part kind of like a cassabana, and the outside green part is not as sweet but taste something like cucumber and you can eat the whole thing. The plant has a thick waxy cuticle like winter melons or wax melons but is different from all of them. fruit is about a foot long. In chinese they call it Yangjiaoguo which either means claw fruit or itchy foot fruit, depending on if the yang is second or third tone.





 Here is a photo of the salaks that are for sale in the markets, I eat a huge amount of them and have a bunch of seeds. The are big and low acid. The bigger ones can sometimes have a nonsolid flesh, the smaller ones have crunchy flesh. I'm getting really addicted to them even though the first ones I tried I hated. Taste very different from the 3 or 4 types of salak I tried in Borneo, If any one knows what variety they are I would like to know





Last but not least I went to a nearby city called Dalian for a weekend trip with my girlfriend and took some photos of some fruit markets there. There had 8 types of cherries(though none as good as in america ) There were also two different types of yangmei for sale.

[Mike T]

Murray I have seen similar melons in Isaan. The salak looks like a Balinese Salacca zalacca amboina Var.lowland which will kicks the ass of the Javanese Salacca zalacca zalacca probably Var.pondoh you may have been comparing it to.

[KarenRei]

Is the first salak picture S. affinis (red salak), perhaps?

http://b-and-t-world-seeds.com/images/85678.jpg

[Mike T]

I could not open that attachment Karen but affinis is smaller, rougher and unfit to commercial selling in the same way that salas, balis or even pondohs or merahs are.

[Felipe]

I agree with Mike:
1. Bali Salak
2. Absolutelly kicks ass
 

BTW, I see green litchis on one of the pictures. Did you get to try them?

[Mike T]

The lychees could be fai zee siu which are sweet when green but those look very green.


Gula pasir the upland yellow bali may also be sent to china and this is a big gun to keep an eye out for.

I would also keep an eye out for thai sala in case some sala sumalee or nern wong show up.Sala are sent to china in small volumes and are the cream of the crop.


If you see thai rakum such as the center fruit surrounded by sala here it is best to walk on by.

[murraystevena2]

The salaks are definitely the large brown variety you have in your first image and they are miles a head of the others I have tried. I tried them the first time in thailand 2 years ago and was not impressed at all, had a weird chemical taste to it. The Borneo I tried many different types, there was one with a superior acid taste that looked a lot like this species but the flesh stuck to the stone. I was very fond of it and its flavor was very different to the one here in china, I took a photo of it below

There were also several types of salak that looked like the photo below and were sour. There was also one growing wild in the forest that the orangs ate and they were even smaller and very sour (dont have a photo of it)

I'm a vegiterian and last week I was eating about a Kilo a day of the big brown salaks for about $8.5 a kilo. I have lots and lots of seeds but they go dry and split if left alone. At the moment one of my favorite fruits.
There are lots of big green litchis for sale in the markets and they taste really good, I also saw another red variety available and they were terrible with big seeds and sour. Lots of the green ones are chicken hearts too.

[murraystevena2]

Woops photos are backwards
Top one is sour, bottom one has great flavor, though as stated ones here now are easier to eat come off seed easily but a little harder to peel.

[Mike T]

There are poorer S.wallichiana with a cough medicine taste. We talked about the salaks in past threads.The big browns are lowland balis and the yellows are upland balis. There are about 22 Salaccas with S.wallichiana having maybe 20 varieties, S.zalacca zalacca having over 20 varieties and S.zalacca amboina (bisex centred on bali) having maybe 10 varieties but the locals would claim more. The 2 commercial species are way ahead of the rest in fruit quality but some still taste shiphouse.