Thursday, July 16, 2009

A THORNY AFFAIR WITH DURIANS

An achivement always feels better if I have worked hard for it. I spent hours digging, weeding and planting in my vegetable plot and end up really sweaty, stinky and hot. My reward is a cold shower followed by a Magnum (vanilla ice cream coated in chocolate in a stick) resting on the swing in the cool evening breeze. What has this got to do with the durian - a Malaysian fruit with menacing thorns? Well, if I can get to eat the fleshy fruits inside, it means someone had worked very hard trying to pry open the darn thing. I will be truthful, I have never opened a durian in my life. Being the first girl after 2 boys, the men in my family would take care of these "difficult" tasks. My task was to just scoop the fruits out with my fingers and enjoy them. There is no etiquette when eating durians - use your fingers.
Like every Malaysian, I love durians. The fruit is covered with hard sharp thorns. It splits along specific grooves that open up at the base once the fruits over ripens. Thus, to eat the durian when it tastes at its best, we have to hit the base with the cleaver and find the grooves before they open.
We use a large cleaver to widen the grooves,
and then both our hands to fully open the fruit.
The fruits with large seeds sit snugly along each groove. Even our dog waits patiently for his share.
Durians are considered "heatie," and one way of cooling the body after a large durian feast is drinking Coco Cola with a bit of salt added. That's our family tradition, others pour a little water into the grooves and drink from it. I swear by the Coco Cola and salt.
Everyone has had a thorny encounter with this King of the Fruits - a durian fell on my dad's toe when he was carrying the fruits to the kitchen, and in another incident MartianGirl really fell backwards onto a pile of durians during a party. Her poor bum looked like a pin cushion with red dots.

5 comments:

  1. What an interesting post, the boss has not seen it over here

    Wizz :-)

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  2. Thank you for popping over to mine a while back. Sorry it has taken me this long to come over to yours. There is an award for you over at mine. I enjoyed reading this post as I've not heard about durians before. :)

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  3. Aren't they big? I've never heard of durians before. I wonder what they taste like.
    Your pictures made good illustrations.

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  4. Yes, the fruits unique only to Asia and are quite big like melons. If you do get a chance Val, you must give it a try cos it is an experience. Only problem is the aroma can be quite strong and the taste is definitely unique. Thanks for the award from Hadriana's treasures

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  5. Very interesting... I have heard of them before but never seen it that well!! Great pics!
    The flower on my blog title is a type of Chicory. It grows wild this time of year and is very abundant along the roadsides. I dont know if its the same variety they use to make a coffee substitute or not. I know the goats really like it!!

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