A Durian Feast

It was a plan that was cooked up just 3 days before the Bersih 2.0 rally. I don't know if it's considered as a good timing or bad timing. My usual suspects decided that they want to have a steamboat dinner at my house and then at the same time to get one of our friends to bring the best durians!

It's the time of the year again where people would make their way to buy the best thorny husks and yellow-coloured-pulp fruit. It's afterall, the King of Fruits. But I must say that Durians is something that you either love it of hate it. For those who dislike durians, like my sister, they may find the smell very offensive. And to purposely irritate her, my younger sister and I would eat the durians infront of her while she's watching the TV. hahah..

I have no idea where my friend got these durians but they sure are of the best quality. That evening, we have a total of 10 boxes of 2 types of durians - Musang King & Tek Kah (Bamboo Leg) which are both very popular types due to taste and the hefty price tag.



While waiting for everyone else to turn up due to chock-a-block traffic by none other than our police force trying to deter people from entering KL the day before rally (which I find it unnecessary), my two friends and I decided that we should start our durian feast early. And what we did was to open all the 10 boxes of durians on the table and taste the 2 different types of the durians side by side. We wanted to identify which type is better and then which box was better as 1 box represents 1 durian fruit. So, there were altogether 10 durians!



And after an hour or so after eating the durians, while waiting for a few more friends, they forced me to pop a bottle of champagne. Weird enough, I found this bottle of Perrier Jouet in my fridge and strangely it belongs to no one. I didn't remember buying this at all. When everyone had a taste of it including my sis, they all gave me a funny look. They didn't like it. Of course-lah, for people whom are always drinking Cristal-lah, Dom-lah, and all the champagnes with vintages, how could they drink a NV? And then they were eyeing my Dom 1996 with evil grins and I just ignored them! haha....


For the Musang King durians (some may call it "Cat Mountain King"), this type has been gaining popularity by the folds. Even Macau’s casino king Stanley Ho loved it so much that he sent his personal jet to Singapore recently to buy 88 of this variety, worth about RM4,800! He then gave 10 of the Musang King to his friend Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing. Maybe he was the reason why we are eating expensive Musang King durians now!




Jokes aside, the Musang King is also popularly known as Durian Kunyit (Tumeric) due to the strong and distinctive yellow colour. Its place of origin is said to be Gua Musang, Kelantan. The characteristic of this fruit is that it is very easy to open and it even splits open by itself after a few hours if the weather is hot. The texture of this durian is thick, creamy and sticky. It is sweet and sometimes you get some bitter ones too. The bigger and better ones are exported to Singapore because for one reason - they could afford it due to the strong currency. Here, we need to pay about RM50 for 1 durian.



The other durian variety which is recommended is called Bamboo Head and in Hokkien, it's popularly known as "Tek Kah". This durian type has a oblong shape and it's thorn are thick and tough. It's very difficult to open this durian and thus we were lucky that it came all packed in containers for easy consumption! This is a very pungent and bitter durian. I love this very much as I love bitter durian. It has a very distinctive taste but although less creamier than the Musang King, I felt that this has a character. It's very hard to come by a good "tek kah" as it is often semi-ripe. Hmm... it's really good!



Durians is really an acquired taste. It's something like caviar and foie gras to the west but for the South East Asia, durians is the way to go! You haven't been to Malaysia if you haven't try the king of fruits. It's not as gross as eating Baluts (which I've tried here) and to compare durians with that, it's just easy-peasy-lah!

I love durians from young and it's always a family tradition to gather at one's house and eat all you can while my uncles would be the ones slitting open the durians. I think my parents would be so jealous now when they see the durians that we were having on the dinner table. I hope the police will not be catching us for consuming the YELLOW fruits!