When you want to say it’s good but…

I invited M&A over once I brought the durian home. I couldn’t wait to share my bounty (wouldn’t you like to be my neighbor?). But as it was all a bit last minute, only M could come as A had another appointment. Very well, all the more for the rest of us.

The durian had been at room temperature for a few hours after the purchase, payment and pickup, all because I had an appointment at Louisa Coffee which I couldn’t miss. The fragrance was beginning to escape the bag and out of courtesy to the other clients of Louisa Coffee, I hung it outside the glass side door. Still within visual range but not within nasal olfactory range. Not that I needed to worry too much, the coffee shop was well ventilated and generally smelled of… coffee.

That evening, when M came over, I pulled the durians out of the fridge.

Each segment in its own bag

“Taaadaaa” I said with a flourish, putting the bag of stinky fruit on the table.

M’s eyes pretended that she was only moderately interested but I could tell from the way she sat down that it was heavy with expectation. She then proceeded to tell me that she’s never had anything but Thai durian and she wasn’t able to tell the difference between a mao shan wang or anything else.

When I untied the top of the bag, the immediate gaseous escape of the distinct aroma flooded the room. If there was a way to colour the aroma we would have seen purple and orange swirls reaching out like growing tendrils searching for the next branch to cling on to.

I’d give it about 7/10 for satisfying smells. Now came the other sensory stimuli… the visual, the taste, the texture on fingertips.

A little bit too mushy

Unpacking the durian was a coordinated effort. We each grabbed a bag and rather unceremoniously rolled the fruit out onto a waiting plate.

We started with the durian with a little less colour and scent. It was… very dull…. almost as if the flavour of it was just a durian that was unripe. So what do you do? a) Force yourself to eat it or

b) Move to the next one

Tell me your answer in the comments below please.

Me: I’ll have one more seed and then move onto the next.

SW: I’ll just try the other one right now…

M: I think this one is not bad actually…

Can you distinguish the shade difference between the two?

The more intense yellow of the two durians did have better texture and a more robust flavour. But it was still nothing compared to the Malaysian musang kings. The seeds were also not quite flat and deformed enough to convince me that it was the right hybrid. It was more like a not so great D24.

Well, you can try fooling the chinese market but let’s see how long for. As a friend in the fermented grape juice biz told me…like good wine, you always need cheap, so-so quality wine to break into the nascent market. Then cash in on the desire to upgrade to the next level.

RFID your Musang king

How do you know if the Musang King you’re looking at is real or fake? Could you be buying a D24 that’s passing itself off as a Musang king at twice the price per kilo?

Luckily, for most of us in South East Asia, we usually buy our fruits direct from a fruit vendor. If we’re not satisfied with the fruit or in anyway not convinced, we match right back up to that vendor and make our complaints very well known. The vendor will usually try to make amends by offering another durian which they consider better quality (sometimes this is a ruse to test if the consumer is a genuine connoisseur, otherwise they will have gotten away with selling a cheap durian at a higher value).

However, if you’re in China where:

1) durian is imported and sold in a wet market

2) there is a likelihood of scammers trying to flog off durian in anyway possible

3) where people may try to “fake” a durian

How do you know your durian is the Musang king and not an inferior variety or heaven forbid, not a durian at all?

A tech company with the name ZXCLaa technology has come up with a solution. To insert a tiny RFID tag into the husk of the durian which consumers can detect with their own mobile phone.

This is certainly a very innovative way to identify the Musang king from a particular company or plantation.

It’s certainly very exciting if the durian can be linked directly to information on the plantation and perhaps even the tree it came from. Can you imagine if you decided that you liked the flavour from a specific tree and decided to buy up the entire harvest just from that tree?

Well, it’ll be good enough just to know a particular plantation that you like.. it would be like a particular vintage of wine from a vineyard. Worth collecting, worth freezing, worth savouring and sharing with other friends and family.

Will keep an eye on it and can’t wait to test it out of it comes to HK. It’ll be extra work for the exporters, more manpower will be needed to carry out this project. Let’s just hope it’s not an excuse to put prices up.

Note: I can’t find anything on ZXCLaa but it could be a govt linked project in Malaysia to assist in the identification mandate.

Mustang King… a new hybrid?

At PARKnSHOP this morning.. Durian festival featuring the Mustang King!

(Btw, it’s definitely not a new hybrid, it’s a spellcheck error… ;))

Zero gravity durian

In the name of science, people are willing to do crazy experiments. Like crazy expensive experiments. Nothing is too much in the name of science.

The Thai space agency sent a vacuum packed package if Durians into space for a few minutes. Accompanying the Stinky orbiting astronaut were some packets of jasmine rice. (Here’s the article).

In fact, it’s so ridiculous a proposition that I wonder how they justified the cost. Well, here’s the rationale.

“In the future we want astronauts to be able to eat Thai food,” said a spokesperson for Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA).

Is this Thai astronauts eating Thai food or other astronauts eating thai food? Weird. The thai food that springs to my mind isn’t a packet of dehydrated durian. More like a great phad thai, a som tum salad or a fabulous Tom yum soup.

Any other reason?

“We want to see whether there are any physical changes after it returns to earth, for example it might get smaller, or cracked.”

Err ok... so you want to see if vacuum packaging works well in space or if freeze dried durian may dehydrate some more?

I just don’t get it. Let me know if you’ve heard the results.

Durians back to back

Hi everyone!

It’s been a long silence due to some domestic chaos that’s been happening. It’s temporarily paused my blogging but never my opportunity to eat or have my ear to the ground about Durians.

I hope you’ve all been well and enjoying eating/ growing/ reading about the Stinky Spikes. I’ll be picking up the news from last year to bring the blog back up to date 🙂

Get ready for blast off!

S1

Durian seller risk

What’s the risk of being a durian seller?

Well lots actually. In malaysia and singapore, there are lots of little one man stalls that sell durian whenever it’s in season. What sorts of risks could they possibly face? I thought I might take a stab at listing a few:

1) bad weather.

This affects the entire chain. From supply to demand. Bad weather, whether it’s too much sun or too much rain affects the fruiting of the trees and the numbers and qualities of the fruit. On the demand side, when it’s raining, less people are inclined to head out. Profits not guaranteed.

2) triads and corrupt cops.

Yes, most stalls in cities need to pay some sort of protection money, even if their stall is in a licensed area (which many are not, they are illegal hawkers). The problem here is that they are at the whim and fancy of all powers that be on the street. One of the durian sellers I had a chat with when I bought from him, told me that the triads come at least once a month to collect a certain sum of cash… he would just have to prepare it and pay up. Worse, he said, were the cops. They would come anytime and often different ones would also approach him. Either for free durian or petty cash. No choice in either situation. You gotta pay rent to someone.

3) it’s a cash business.

Well, it is mostly at these stalls… card facilities are just too expensive to maintain. Though with direct mobile payments, perhaps this might change. So you can imagine all the issues with cash dealing.., there’s lots of cash that needs to be kept safe every day (as a float, a day’s earnings or cash to buy durians off the middlemen) or you’re a target for thieves. Most durian sellers will try to have more than one person at the stall for exactly that reason and also try to place their stall in areas of high visibility (both for clients convenience and their own safety). Check out this latest article where a durian seller was robbed and stabbed.

4) the danger in the product itself.

Durians are heavy and full of thorns. Drop one on your foot and it is quite unforgiving unless you’re wearing mining boots. (Observe your sellers footwear in future :)) Durian sellers often have rough tough hands, coarse from handling fruit. Many durian are sprayed with pesticide to keep the bugs and other animals off, I can’t imagine what these chemicals do to the skin over time.

Another sweet durian treat in Times Square, Causeway Bay

There is simply an infinite number of ways that you can conjure up a slightly different dessert using all the same ingredients. Agree?

Well I certainly thought so when I saw this.

A Danish Durian Bar.

No, no not a bar in Denmark… although that’s what initially popped into my mind. Were they eating these Danish bars in Denmark?

As it turns out, NO. Danish Bar is a Japanese bakery concept started by the Mermaid bakery.

They had all sorts of sweet and savoury flavors wrapped in a sort of crepe type exterior which looked partly crunchy and partly chewy… one had a D24 filling. Interesting. It looks a little lewd, (but I guess the sausage one is the most lewd) and I’m not sure you want to be seen eating it while walking around.

I plan to go and try it, though if you get there before me, let me know if the D24 is worth it. A Mao Shan Wang might have greater appeal.

Find it at the corner near the escalators by the City Super Food Court in Times Square, right by Mermaid Bakery.

The 3 dollar stall is now a 350 dollar durian stall

Since the day that TH told me that a durian shop had opened right on her street (Wan Chai Road), it’s been drawing me over like a moth to a flame.

The durian stall replaced a casual pop up selling everything for 3 Hong Kong dollars. We still use the words “Sam-mun” to affectionately refer to that specific location despite that pop up having left a some months ago.

The durian stall in Wan Chai road only has a chinese name猫山旺, which is “Mao Shan Wang” currently the unequivocal top breed of durian. It’s consistent, it’s full of flavour and really once you’ve had this, you may as well forget Thai durians and other non-descript hybrids and pay full attention (and money) to eat this one.

Eating durians in Hong Kong is always a splurge for me, and it was on a wet drizzly day that I suddenly decided that I was desperate for durian.

There I was across the street at the stoplight, huddled under an umbrella, my shoes soaked in murky sidewalk rain water and what do I see?

….Nothing. The wooden shelves and palettes were completely empty.

Whaaaat was going on? Obviously I wasn’t the only one pondering a durian stall with no durians in the middle of the afternoon.

This called for an investigation. I zoomed in for a closer look and a chat with the lady at the stall.

“Durians on flight, haven’t arrived yet.” She said. “If you want, consider these packs at 180” she waved her hand toward the table, “or come back tomorrow“.

The three packs of durian were quite small, I’d say they were half of a smallish durian in each pack. Upon smelling them, I decided to go for the pack with an assortment of small seeds.

Reliable Mao Shan Wang. Need I say more? They were barely chilled then polished off.

oh yes. When I was at the shop, I saw a leaflet pasted on the wall advertising a durian buffet in Wan Chai. Sounded interesting, it went into my calendar.

This stall is located on Wan Chai Road near the Comix Home Base.

It usually looks like this.

Such is the power of government negotiations

Gone in 60 seconds: Chinese snap up 80,000 Thai durians online

Encountering Durian on Malaysian Food Street in Sentosa. Christmas 2017.

We went to the SEA aquarium today, perhaps not the best idea given that it’s the day after Christmas. The queues were mighty long, both for tickets and to enter. Inside, the main exhibits were filled with people all jostling for a look. The big tank areas were being used for picnics. Yep, definitely not the best day.

Anyway, we’re not home too often so the tourist behaviours manifest and attempting to keep the kids from going crazy is a main objective of each day. As long as they willingly head to bed between 9-11pm, we’re patting ourselves on the back.

Ok I digressed. On the way for the car park to the aquarium, we went past the trick eye museum, the Malaysian food street and the durian stall. Pause. Rewind. Durian stall? That was definitely not here last time I came! Well, neither were the Malaysian nor korean food streets.

Of course I had to take a look.

Smelled pretty food. A small selection of durian sold at pretty high prices.

All Musang Kings. 33 SGD per kg.

These are called Musang king black gold and go for a whopping SGD 40 per kilo.

Not cheap but there were clients evidently. I saw a table of four enjoying the fruit nearby. After the aquarium visit we walked back the same way and it was clear that the two rows of durian had reduced to one row of durians within a two hour period. I guess when in Sentosa, tourists are willing to pay Sentosa prices.