Durians will never be the same again...

A visit to a 'proper' durian stall does make a difference. With honest durian sellers.

I've heard of sneaky sellers who figured out that someone is a noob when it comes to durians so the buyers were conneed into buying a lower grade durian at Mao Shan Wang prices.

Wait... Mao Shan... what???

I guess you'll just go to ieatishootipost's entry to get a lil' bit of 'education' on what 'Mao Shan Wang' durian is all about.... And the stall he mentioned is the one I went to over here...

Katong Durian 

It was my colleague, Sri's birthday and my boss brought us out for lunch at the Katong area.

My boss appeared pretty hyper/happy/excited somehow, during lunch and his wife later let on that his favourite durian stall is nearby and he's looking forward to having some.

So we do away without dessert and strode over to the durian stall. It wasn't that impressive, frankly. Small, with a limited number of durians, in fact. Then I learnt that they only bring in the best of the lot and there are days when no durians come in just because they weren't available or good enough.

I was surprised at just how detailed they were. They will first ask what we look for in the durians that we want. What type of taste? Texture? A durian noob like me totally appreciate this gesture. 

'Red Prawn' (Ang Hae) durian
pic courtesy of my colleague, Sri

This was the very first durian served to us. This came first because it carries a creamy, yet milder taste and is less pungent. Having the stronger-tasting and smelling Mao Shan Wang before this would have 'killed' the taste.

Boss opening the 'Red Prawn' for us

I was a tad disappointed because it wasn't THAT red. Very yellow, yes. I can't see any reddish tint anywhere.

And no, I'm not silly enough to expect something like the Borneo Red Durians!

And yes, the Red Prawn was awesome! Smooth, creamy taste. Hardly bitter. Almost 'feminine' in taste.

Then again, that was before I had the Mao Shan Wang (MSW)…

Ahh… the Mao Shan Wang!

Some call it the 'Raja Kunyit' (Tumeric King), some call it 'Musang King' (musang being, fox).

what a beauty...!

Deep yellow colour, with thick flesh. Has a rich, sweet and slightly bitter taste (which I totally love!). I just can't stop reaching for more!

check out the seed!

Seeds of the MSW are small AND thin, which is why the flesh feels satisfyingly thick.

So many segments!

I was amazed at how much durian we can get from just 1 fruit. 

Inside the deeper segment...

Even the central segments are fully packed with durian! I was just so blown away and makes me feel less guilty about reaching for the fruit ever so often because there definitely is more than enough to go around!

The 5 of us shared merely 1 Red Prawn and 1 Mao Shan Wang, but I felt like we had a lot more! Definitely filling and wayyy more than satisfying.

Makes me wonder if it really is worth buying many, many cheap durians with inconsistent qualities and tastes or should I 'invest' in a good durian from a realiable stall? What do you think?

Anyway, this stall actually provides us with wet tissues. My boss gave us a good tip: Wash your hands with Colgate, to better get rid of the smell of our hands.

We went to the back and discovered some cheap toothpaste lying around and tried. Doesn't work, actually. My boss chuckled and remarked that we need the ACTUAL Colgate brand, perhaps... Pfft!

Ok, ok.. Last pic!

The MSW was sooo pungent that I actually start to hate myself for eating all that durians. All that gas and the pungent breath… plus the odour that seeps out of your system as you burp every now and then…

Eugh…!

Kundang, Rawang ~ fruit-bearing season!

Yes, all ye Arachnophobiacs. That is indeed a spider on its web.

Wait, don't run! Look at it… ain't it such a pretty little thing…?

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Anyway, to get the story started...

My parents got to stay at this house when they attended a wedding in Puchong last year. They love it so much and kept on raving about it to everyone.

My cousins and I, we kept in contact with our Malaysian relatives through, well, what else? Facebook, of course. And were informed of the fruit-bearing season at this relative's fruit grove.

Anyway, Kundang, Rawang is located in Selangor, Malaysia. This is very near to the popular Tasik Biru (Blue Lake). I was disappointed to see that the water in the lake wasn't blue at all. Then again, the lake used to be a quarry. I guess, after it was abandoned, the water eventually collected to form a lake. And quarry lakes tend to be bluish/greenish at first, due to the excess mineral deposit from the quarry. I guess that's how it got its name.

My parents got delirious and was adamant on going. They casually put word to my dad's siblings and what do we know…? ALL of them wanted to go!

So there were a grand total of 18 of us, planning to travel during the long X-mas weekend on such short notice. We scrambled around to get coach tickets. And my relative over there scrambled to get us coach/train tickets - whichever was available.

We ended up travelling on a luxurious double-decker coach and made our return on the KTM night train. We had to settle for the cattle class.

They were the only seats available. Even then, I had to take a day's leave because the train arrive on the next working day... :P

The House

My parents were right. The house is indeed big. It not only house the 18 of us, there's also the host with their 6 kids and some of their other relatives + family who stayed over, as they always did on the last weekend of the month, when there's a family gathering.

The verandah where we had our meals

To maximise our 'kampung' (village) experience, we chose to be as close as we can to the outdoors, that's why the verandah became our favourite spot to hang out.

That's how desperate, us city-folks were.

The fruit trees right behind

There were fruits trees flanking 3 sides of the house.

The rear

The lawn

There's even a well-manicured carpet-grass lawn, which was a hit with the kids. My kiddo enjoyed the chance to run freely around, as he kick ball with his cousins.

There's also a metal swing, which met a sad end when 4-6 grown fully-grown adults fit themselves on it. It was funny to hear them scream as one side of the swing dropped down and all of them scrambled away.

What's even funnier was the sight of my son running gleefully towards it and sat down, feeling glad to (finally) have the swing to himself.

Little did he know…

Kids cycling on the gravel driveway

The driveway was huge, mainly because all their relative drive their own car and when all of them gather, the driveway becomes a huge parking lot.

Swings

A hit with my cousins' girls. They sat on these rugged, homemade swings every chance they get. And no, they aren't for adults. Tried & tested… Really!

The Fruit Grove

Fruit picking 1

Fruit picking 2

All of us trooping into the fruit grove

Jackfruit tree

A variation of the jackfruit, which the Malays call, 'Cempedak'. Another variation will be the, 'Nangka'.

As you can see, the fruits on this tree are still small. Still a few months away from ripening.

Giant jackfruit

That's my dad and a huge jackfruit. Huge- because most ripe jackfruit comes to about only 3/4 of this size. And guess what…?

That beast is not even ripe yet! I can imagine it getting even bigger as it ripens!

Rambutan tree

In Malay, the word, 'rambut' means, 'hair.

With a name like 'rambutan', you can just imagine how the fruit looks like…

Rambutan & chiku tree (background)

Up close

Can you see how 'hairy' the fruit appears to be?

Chiku tree, up close

Chiku is also known as 'sapota' to some. It looks a lot like kiwi fruit from the outside, except that it isn't hairy. Something like a potato, actually.

Rambutan tree next door

We were enthralled by the sight of this tree, located to one side of the grounds. There were so much fruit that they appeared like flowers, from far! My dad later told me that the tree actually belong to their neighbour.

Upon closer inspection, well, true enough. The trunk was actually across the fence yet almost 1/2 the tree is spread into the neighbour's land!

Close up

I asked why no one bothered to pluck that fruit? Their neighbour had in fact, allowed them access to the fruits that hovered above their land but they're still apprehensive.

And that neighbour of theirs must have been totally jaded with all these fruits. While we were trying to clean out the fruits down here!

My relative told us that not many fancy those rambutans. The taste was not comparable to the ones we got. Well… lucky us, then!

Small guava

This guava appears to be more on the smallish side. Apparently, it's already ripe. My uncle actually picked it up from the ground (only ripe fruits will drop off).

Pink guava - inside.

As soon as my aunties saw it, they were like, "Apek atau nyonya..?!"

Us younger folks were dumbfounded and gave them the quizzical look. "Huh?"

They went on to explain that there are 2 types of guavas. One with white flesh and one that's pink inside. They use the term, 'Apek' (Chinese uncle) for the white one and 'Nyonya' (Chinese Auntie) for the pink.

If they use gender to associate the 2 colours, why do they chose the term, 'Apek & Nyonya' instead of 'Pakcik & Makcik' (Malay Uncle & Auntie)…? Beats me.

Well, as you can see… the one that we bite into, was a 'Nyonya'. That got us pretty ecstatic because most of us younger folks, have never in our whole life, eaten a real pink guava! We've only drank the flavoured cordial/syrup instead.

A couple of geese

... Or you can also call them 'geese couple'.
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So there, my entry of the house and the fruit grove.

My next entry will be on… the FOOD, of course! How can I miss that?!