myths and misconceptions

with regard to durians

myth number 1: the fruit is loaded with cholesterol

not only not true but also not correct. only animals and animal products have cholesterol; a durian is a fruit, so it is cholesterol free.

the good points about the durian fruit are:

no saturated fat
no cholesterol
very low in sodium
no sugar
high in dietary fibre
high in thiamin (vitamin b1)
high in vitamin b6
very high in vitamin c

(source: http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/2088/2)

myth number 2: mixing durian and alcohol is lethal.

we have been told that eating durian and drinking alcohol like beer or whisky at the same time can cause death. there have been a few reports of people dying after eating too much durians but there is no scientific evidence to prove that the combination of the two is lethal. some who have dared to try it have lived to tell of upset stomach and of feeling fragile.

the belief can be traced back at least to the 18th century when rumphius stated that one should not drink alcohol after eating durians as it will cause indigestion and bad breath. in 1929, j. d. gimlette wrote in his malay poisons and charm cures that the durian fruit must not be eaten with brandy. in 1981, j. r. croft wrote in his bombacaceae: in handbooks of the flora of papua new guinea that "a feeling of morbidity" often follows the consumption of alcohol too soon after eating durian. several medical investigations on the validity of this belief have been conducted with varying conclusions. (source: wikipedia)

myth number 3: durians have eyes and they will not fall on your head

there are still people naive enough to believe this. i will definitely feel much safer wearing a crash helmet if i ever go durian picking/hunting. if it is indeed true, then there is no need for the sign "beware of falling durians". the fruit normally falls at night but some may also drop after a storm.

myth number 4: durians have aphrodisiac qualities.

some people believe that eating the durian can enhance your sex drive. the indonesians have this saying: durian jatuh, sarong naik (the durian falls and the sarong comes up) which seems to support this belief. as for me, i do not experience any 'gear shift' even after consuming a lot of durian; the libido remains status quo.

myth number 5: you can get rid of the smell by drinking water from the shell

quite a number of people i know have attested to the effectiveness of this method. after consuming the fruit, they pour water into an empty shell and drink it. some also believe that if you add a bit of salt to the water, it will reduce the 'heatiness' which comes after consuming lots of the fruit.

myth number 6: to counter the 'heatiness', eat mangosteens

another popular belief, especially among the chinese, is that you should eat some mangosteens - which are supposed to be 'cooling' as opposed to durians which are considered 'heaty'- after eating lots of durian.

myth number 7: durians with squirrel-made holes are ripe and tasty

i did not know that squirrels have the same taste buds as humans. i have seen unripe durians with holes made by squirrels at the durian loop, near the murnane reservoir.

myth number 8: you can tell a good durian by its thorns and shape

according to some so-called experts, you should pick those with short, firm and sharp thorns. you are advised to reject those with blunt and 'bendy' thorns. i have not really come across durians with blunt thorns. irregular shaped ones are preferred to those that are round.

maybe you have heard of other myths or other strange ideas about the durian. share with us.

durian feast for birthday

today bought 7 golden phoenix (kim hong) and 2 cat mountain king (mao shan wang) durians for around $100 from my regular vendor at woodgrove. yesterday, i had gone there with the intention of placing today's order with him but at 7.00 p.m., he was nowhere to be found. today, he explained to me that his whole lorry-load of durians had been bought over by someone on saturday.

we actually had a proper home-cooked dinner and so the durians were part of the after-meal dessert. we had chicken curry, chap chye, honey pork ribs and kong bak with tau pok. these could go with either the steamed rice or the toasted garlic bread.

pei ling bought a cake for her father's birthday.

the eight of us managed to finish about four durians, both the mao shan wang and about two of the golden phoenix. i say about two because we opened four of the golden phoenix durians but not all the segments. so, they ended up having to tar pau durians and other unfinished food home.

i think these were about the best durians we had tasted for a long time.

buying durians from roadside
stalls in m'sia







some of the best durians we have eaten were gotten from roadside stalls in west malaysia. i remember having tasted very good durians, in the early days, in melaka and on the way to ipoh, when we bought them from roadside stalls.

the durians were usually the kampong variety. the fruit was usually of average size, not the huge ones like those thai durians. we would buy either by the number of fruit or by weight, then it was in kati. i remember, quite often, we would have to help the vendors to total up the price. even when they started using the calculator, they still needed our help to work out the price.

for these roadside sellers, selling durians was more to have some side or extra income. they did not have mountains of fruit to sell, just a handful of them. they either grew their own fruit or collected them.

then after hearing and reading about singaporeans being ripped off by roadside durian sellers, usually chinese ones, we became very wary when it came to buying durians from roadside stalls. we would park our cars some distance from the stalls and avoid speaking in english in the presence of the durian sellers.

we heard of how some of these unscrupulous fly-by-night durian sellers would quote very attractive rates for their durians but when it came to weighing the fruit, they would cheat by putting some pressure on the scale so that the durians would weigh much more than their actual weight. or some would swop the durians that you have picked with 'rejects' when they packed them into the brown paper bags for you.

these days, most of the roadside durian sellers are full-time fruit sellers. they either set up a stall by the roadside or ply their ware at the back of their truck or inside a van. the one from which we bought our durians in melaka even had tables for customers to enjoy the fruit on the spot.

the durians were priced at between rm$12 and rm$15 a kilo. we bought five durians for rm$53 and 2 kg of mangosteens for rm$8. we finished the whole lot at the roadside stall.