the soursop tree - durian belanda

today, i explored the sungei tengah area and was surprised to see many soursop trees with fruit ripe for the picking. was wondering why they were still there as the fruit is sold at sheng siong at $4/kg.

when we lived in a kampong house, we had a soursop tree growing outside the house, on the other side of the monsoon drain. it was not a very tall tree but it bore fruit throughout the year. we were not particularly fond of the fruit, so sometimes we let it ripen on the tree and it would fall to the ground, squashed.

normally, we would pick the fruit when it had a tinge of yellow. we would leave it laying around for a couple of days till the fruit was soft to the touch before we started to eat it. it is a fruit that cannot be kept for too long after it has been harvested. that is one of the reasons why you do not find many fruit stalls selling this fruit.

i tried unsuccessfully to look for it at fruit stalls in toa payoh, bukit batok and yew tee. the soursop tree may bear fruit anywhere on its trunk and branches. the malays call it durian belanda because it is covered with soft prickles. the chinese call it 'ang moh durian'. the fruit is more or less oval or heart shaped, sometimes irregular, lopsided or curved. the pulp has a slightly acidic, tropical flavour. the seeds are said to be toxic and the skin is not edible.

i remember those days when taman serasi food centre was still around, there was this friendly man from lim hin fruit stall who sold large mugs of soursop drink for $1.50. i heard his fruit stall is now at old airport road food centre.

i have come across soursop trees planted along the roadside at sungei tengah and lim chu kang. i wonder who gets to harvest the fruit when it is ripe. over at lim chu kang, it is quite difficult to find a ripening fruit on any of the trees. however, at sungei tengah many of the ripe soursops are left to rot on the trees.