By Sharon Ng Kooi Kin (story and pictures)

Which State produces the best durians? One person may tell you it's Penang, another Perak, or Malacca, or Johor. Then more specific locations will be suggested, like Balik Pulau, Cameron Highlands, Bukit Gantang, Batu Kurau... the list goes on.

When talking about the king of the fruit, one has to be very careful. Just claim that you've just had the most wonderful feast of D24 durians and you can almost be sure that someone will chip in with "XOD24 is better".

That will signal the start of a hot debate on where to get the best durians or which variety is the most delicious.

This year, Perak is enjoying a durian glut. The harvest is huge and durian lovers are rejoicing. At RM1(S$0.42) a fruit, every day was durian day.

The annual Perak Great Durian Festival was held in Bukit Gantang on Aug 9 for the third year running since 2006. The event offered 20,000 free durians and attracted an estimated crowd of 15,000 locals as well as foreign durian lovers who feasted on varieties like D24, D99, kucing tidur, kunyit, tembaga and jantung.

Durian madness is an annual affair for Malaysians and driving long distances to get good durians is hardly extraordinary. A recent development, greatly enjoyed by foreign tourists, is to pick your own fruit in an orchard. Sleeping over to wait for the fruit to drop is another activity that appeals particularly to visitors bent on exotic holiday experiences.

Durian Hunt

On an eco-exploration expedition in July, our party of 50 was taken to an orchard near Lenggong for a durian feast. The organisers had negotiated a group rate with the orchard owner, Nan, for an "eat as much as you can" package.

Even as we drove towards our destination, we were salivating in eager anticipation of a great feast.

Our convoy of cars trundled along an increasingly narrow rural road to reach the orchard near Kampong Kuak, about 100km north of Ipoh. When we alighted, we were told to fan out and pick fallen durians. Huh? We have to hunt for the durians? I had envisaged a pile of durians awaiting our arrival.

The younger ones, however, enthusiastically embarked on the hunt, striding through the undergrowth and looking under trees for that spiky blob of green gold.

I waited in the car, beating off pesky mosquitoes which seemed to zero in on me. Applying insect repellant on every inch of exposed skin, I was beginning to wonder at the wisdom of this venture. Some 20 minutes later, the hunters returned, each carrying one or two durians which they placed in a common pool. The orchard owner came by to count the fruit and then added more from his van.

"I have two orchards," he said. "Don't worry. There'll be enough for everyone." And sure enough, as one of the main organisers, National Service chief instructor Shamsul Azhar Ahmad or simply Sam, kept on opening one fruit after another, we had our fill.

Red Prawn's Best?

I sat at a table nearest to where the durians were being opened. Since there was this obscenely huge feast of durians available, I could pick and choose what I liked.

I went only for the deep yellow or reddish-orange ones, hoping to strike, what the Chinese call Ang Heh or Red Prawn. I must confess I'd never eaten so much Ang Heh before at one sitting. Every other fruit that Sam opened was a Red Prawn which he passed to me with a delightful "Hah!".

I dug my fingers into the soft fleshy seeds to dislodge two or three, all stuck together like triple scoops of ice cream. Even as I inhaled deeply that unique aroma, eager to sink my teeth into all that sweetness, I offered them first to those behind me. Eager hands grabbed the top seeds, leaving me with one precious ball of creamy heaven to savour.

Talk about finger licking good! Surely a certain Colonel Sanders would have had to revise his tagline if he had been in our party!

I noticed a pint-sized girl always holding two seeds, one in each hand, and after finishing one, would work on the other which she would then hold with both hands! This was the first time I'd seen an adult using two hands to eat one seed of durian.

Even as we feasted, we noticed the trees laden with fruit that threatened to drop any time. Some were so low, we could have plucked them off the tree. But everyone knows that durian must ripen on the tree and drop by themselves. They should never be plucked.

There were also langsat and rambutan trees, all covered with tantalising fruit. But we only had eyes for durian.

Durian Myths

There are many stories about durian, myths and folklore and even proverbs and sayings. Did you know that wild boars love durian too and can open a fruit themselves, eat every seed clean and leave them in a neat pile on the jungle floor? That's no old wives' tale!

But is it true that if you eat durian and drink alcohol at the same time, your stomach will explode? And how about the popular Malay saying: "Durian runtuh, sarong naik." If you don't understand this one, get somebody to translate it for you. Fact or fiction? Go figure it out yourself.

Contact

The durian orchard owner is Ahmad Mazni Haji Razali, Kampung Kuak, Perak. Tel. No: 013-585 3689 (Ask for Durian Nan. He speaks English, so no problem there)

The peak durian season in Perak is between July and August with accompanying fruits like rambutan, mangosteens, langsat and dokong.