FEASTING ON BRANDED DURIANS

My sister Li Lian's family loves eating durians.  When she comes back to Ipoh with hubby and children in tow, her dear sister would entertain them by providing a feast of durians.  After all the purpose of coming to Ipoh for many is to sample the delightful food and nothing much else.  For the Singaporeans, they also come here to shop as the prices would be much cheaper.

For the past years, I have been buying a lot of durians for them but the problem is not all of them are tasty. There are many stalls selling durians as there is a glut this season.  However, I wasn't sure if they'd do justice to the palates of my relatives from down under.  I did buy a few 'kampung' durians to whet their appetites for the first day but they were just passable.  Now I wanted so much to satisfy their taste buds and decided to go for the "branded' durians the next day.  I made a booking for the durians from the durian seller one day before and told him to reserve at least two for me.  At 1.00 p.m., I went to collect the durians.  I asked the seller for more but he told me that he could only spare two as the rest were already pre-booked.  He told me that the more expensive the durians were, the more in demand they were.

One of the durians he got me was the Mao Sang Wong or Musang King Durian. The price was RM22 for 1 kilo.   I couldn't remember the Chinese name for the other durian but it was RM12 for a kilo.

Here is how one seed of Musang King durian looks like.  Everyone said it tasted good but surprisingly, they said that the other durian tasted even better.  It was creamier and fleshier.  I promised them that I'd make a booking for more such durians they next time they visit.