enjoying good malaysian durians



















whenever i want to eat good durians, ...... no, i do not sneak into the parks, nature reserves and cemeteries at night to hunt for durians. in fact, i have not tasted a durian picked on my own. also, i do not go to sims avenue to buy them because i do not know the vendors well enough.

i go to this malaysian durian seller who sets up his stall at the woodgrove, just in front of the 7-eleven store, along woodlands avenue 1. there is always a queue of regulars at his stall. mr so is reliable and trustworthy and he sells good durians only. you do not see him at the beginning of the season because the first batch of durians are usually mediocre in terms of quality. he also disappears at the tail end of the season for the same reason.

durians which are good but not outstanding are sold by the fruit. usually, it is $20 for 3 big durians or $10 for 3 small durians. premium durians like mountain cat king (mao shan wang) and golden phoenix (kim hong) are sold by weight.

he also gave us some pointers on how to tell if a durian is a genuine mao shan wang. one is the colour of the husk; it has a distinctive colour (see picture on left). two is the small flat area at the base of the fruit and three, the colour of the flesh of the durian.

the other day, i got two big mao shan wang for $59, at $13/kg. today, my former colleague bought one mao shan wang and three golden phoenix durians for $67, at $12/kg. the golden phoenix durians are much smaller in size.

i find the taste of the creamy mao shan wang better than d101, d24, red prawn and xo. my friend thai soon, a fruit lover, eats only mao shan wang these days.