Last summer, when I was in Penang, we visited a durian farm. We were fortunate enough that our host took us and drove round half of Penang Island to get to the farm.
http://https://youtu.be/2AQ8zoP78-o
Actually, we visited the farm shop, err…. sort of. We visited the place in the farm where the customers visit to taste and buy the durians. We had to go down this winding road off the round-the-island road. The little road was winding and a bit scary. The place is called Balik Pulau / Teluk Bahang, I am not sure where is the boundary. It is on the other side of the island away from the commercial area of George Town. Fortunately our host cum driver is a true blue Penangite and knows his way around and is a frequent customer of this place. The
actual farm is in the hills. Durian tress grow in hilly areas and are hard to access. One has to go to the jungle/ hilly areas to view the trees. The trees are very tall too and one has to be carefull not to have a durian drop on one’s head!! So to cut a story short, we did not actually visit the farm, just the venue where we can eat the durians.
When we reached there, the place was full of people. There were many foreigners too. I had a chat with some of the foreigners there. They were actually working there to get to eat all the durians. They serve the customers, clear up the durian skins, fill up the water urn, etc . They also get free accommodation thrown in!
There were local students who were filming there, making a documentary for their school project, too.
The place was busy and not very tidy. When we arrived, there were not many durians around. After hanging around for a while, there was some delivery. We were treated to various types of durians. They have fancy names for durians nowadays. But when I tasted them, they all tasted familiar and brought back childhood memories.
When I was young , my dad used to buy a lot of durians during durian seasons. But in those days, the durians were not named and so we would try to categorise them by looking at the shape, colour, thorns, weight, smell and the sound of the durians when shaken or when stroked by the finger nails. We were quiet good at that. My dad would buy a pile of durians from our faithful fruit seller or the Malay vendors ( who have their own durian trees in their farms). We then chose a durian each. My dad would tell us that since we chose our own durians, we were responsible for the outcome. I.e, if it turned out to be not tasty, it’s was just too bad as we had chosen ours. So no blaming others and we had to eat our durians, no stealing from our siblings!! I learned to treat my children fairly from my father.
Nowadays the seller just use a big cleaver or chopper to open the durians. In the good old days, we opened the durians by prying on the distinct markings that indicate the segments. Opening durians was one of the rites of passage of eating durians. My dad or uncle would help to open them. We even had a durian opener – which is a wooden stake shaped like a chisel. This was then pushed into the markings and then the durian would open easily.
Did you know that I can open a ripe durian with my bare hands? I was that good.
Coming back to the durians…
We were offered several types of durians. Among them are the ‘hor loh’ or water pitcher, ‘ang heh’ which is red prawn, ‘cheh phuay’ which is green skin, ‘musang king’ which is king of civet cat. Musang king is considered the top of the lot. There were some other durians like D24 which is a bit soft and other various types with D numbers. The ones with D numbers were the earlier attempt by the Agricultural Department to ‘brand’ the durians. Now with various names, ie, branding , the branded ones are now more in demand compared to the unbranded ones.
Prior to this branding stuff, the way to get good durians was to know the farmer or the orchard holder, or the durian vendor. They would recommend the durians that are ‘Chai Chang’. This means that they know which trees bear the durians with the desired taste. They identify the trees and they know the fruit. That was as good as it got. Now with the branding going on. farmers can earn more and the vendors, too. The customers pay for the type of durians they want. So it is a good thing – a win-win situation. This is applying marketing principles to increase value!
Here are the goodies…
Watch this video of the treacherous ride to the farm. Click here
Then watch the glorious durians that we had!!
Bao Sheng Durian Farm – there is no website but you can google it.
Have you been to the farm yet? Or any other durian farms in other places, like in Pahang?. Do share you experience as I am sure most of our readers would love to visit the farms ( all fruits included, not only durians)
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See you in the next post.
Penang Lassie.
