Food, glorius food!

Especially durians 🙂

Straight from the tree, unblemished, fresh, untainted by worms and other pests. Pure and delicious! I was at Sungei Chetang durian orchard ( about 45 minutes outside Bentong town ) recently by the invitation of a colleague. It was a first time for me actually being in a durian orchard having passed them by on numerous past outstation trips and wondering about them.

This time I found myself, plus some other colleagues, going round the place picking up fruits that had fallen from the tree and bringing it back to the collection center.

Let me say – if you love durians –  that nothing beats eating the fruit when it has just dropped from the tree. The flesh is sweet, aromatically pungent and oh so delicious. Every fruit that was opened up was a feast of ‘durian-istic’ delight! As you can tell I loove durians.

This particular orchard has trees with branches hanging so low that the fruits were just begging to be plucked. But of course you can’t do that as the fruit would never ripen if not allowed to mature naturally.

This species I’m told is a particular superstar of durians called the Raja Musang and after having tried a few choice pieces I can testify that their reputation is well deserved 🙂 The seed is almost non-existent and enveloped by a thick, creamy and somewhat bitter flesh – which is my favourite ‘flavour’:

The distinctive 'star' shape on the bottom of the fruit is a sure indicator of the Raja Musang

 

A D24 - waay good!

D2 - equally good

We were introduced to another species called the Bamboo Leg – don’t know why it’s called that though but again it’s reputation was well and truly deserved:

Nearby the orchard was a wholesaler who bought the harvest of durians from the surrounding orchards which he would then distribute to retailers in KL. Let me tell you that if you ever get the chance to buy durians from a wholesaler don’t let it slip as you get the best grades at very reasonable prices and you are guaranteed to get good quality fruits.

After a feast of durians we still had space in our bellies to go for lunch at a place which served rather unusual Chinese dishes. I forget the name of the restaurant but it’s at the Janda Baik / Selesa Hills Resort turn off from the highway. We swore we couldn’t take another morsel of food after the morning’s durian buffet but the dishes on offer was too good to resist 🙂 :

I swear I’ve never had so much good food in my stomach. It was food, truly glorious food! 🙂