Those of you who studied the first book of New Practical Chinese Reader probably remember the lesson where one of the characters goes to a market in China and buys a "xiangjiaopingguo" (香蕉苹果), which the book translated as "apple with banana taste."

Is this a real thing? I'm in the U.S. and have never seen it here. Have any of you in China actually seen or eaten this fruit? Or were the textbook writers just pulling our legs?

According to these pages, it's a "Newton pippin", which is a real kind of apple.

http://www.dianping.com/group/englishsalon/topic/2908152

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/167978706.html

I remember editing that word in the Skritter database two years ago and thinking the same thing!

Thanks for solving this mystery!

I had imagined this was an exotic Chinese fruit but Wikipedia says the Newtown Pippin originated in the U.S. and was grown by George Washington.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtown_Pippin

I can't wait to try one of these!

I didn't realize that. The first I had heard of it was when I was in China. A friend of mine ate them all the time. I had no idea it was an American fruit. Cool.

peanutbutter, they're real and delicious :-)

@murrayjames, do they really taste like bananas?

No. They look and taste like weird apples.

Greetings from Athens,

Thanks a lot for the answer, I was really wondering what that bananapple actually was :P !!!

Hey everybody,

thanks for the information. I also checked the Chinese Wikipedia, and it has a picture of a Golden Delicious apple, subtitled with 香蕉苹果. How 'bout that?! It's probably just a mistake, since I eat a lot of Golden Delicious here in Germany and they never tasted like bananas ;)

Regards,
Alex