I was craving for durians late at night and went to check out one of the “posher” durian stalls near my place. It’s called Kota Durian Red Carpet, named for the red carpets on the floor, I presume. I’ve actually been here with my better half before but we didn’t see anything interesting (besides the dubious A24 and B24 durians, which they claim are better grades of D24).
However, this time I spotted a HUGE durian among the pile labelled as “Durian Pahang Sang Lee”. Sang Lee is a place near Raub, Pahang which is famous for their durians. These were selling for RM 12/kg and are supposedly durian kampong. It’s slightly more expensive than the RM 10/kg regular durian kampong in the other mound.
I was quite surprised at the size of the durian – it weighed in at a staggering 5.4 kg! That comes up to RM 65 for the durian, but since it was almost 1 am, I managed to convince them to let it go at RM 40. The durian was opened up and I saw the flesh was reasonably decent, although in such a gigantic durian, there’s bound to be irregularities.
I suspect this durian is really a D159/Monthong/Bantal Emas that has been chucked into the pile since Monthong Durians generally don’t sell well in the local market. Yup, that makes it the bigger brother of the frozen durians you’ll find in Asian groceries abroad – Monthong has less odor and the flesh is inoffensive to first-timers. However, this isn’t a pure bred Thailand Monthong durian but the D159 Golden Pillow cultivar planted locally which is a colossal 4-6 kg beast.
The 5.4 kg durian had so much flesh that I found that I could only eat two rows before I was full to the point of being stuffed! It took me 24 hours to finish the entire durian – eating it for every single meal. The flesh was sweet but mostly tasteless – fluffy like a soft marshmallow (it’s almost like eating foam) and very filling since the seeds are quite small.
It took a lot of effort to finish the durian and although I can’t say it tasted very good, the distinct lack of a odor and the relatively bland taste of the flesh together with the size makes me believe this is a D159 Monthong. It’s unusual to find durians of this size and it’s certainly one of the more interesting durians I’ve eaten this year. 🙂
wow, so huge, @.@
HB, super enjoying all your durian posts as of late…but this does mean my next trip home to Penang/Malaysia with my husband will be spent looking for all the special durians!!
It’s funny that the white dude in this relationship is a durian fiend and the Malaysian chick avoids them like plague 😉
Oh my kucing….so big ka the durian…
I like Malaysian durian better. Thai ones very fast full
wah…… that’s really one durian of the durians!!!
looks like durian love still in the air. I miss having the “durian king”. with the durian flesh inside, larger than my palm. Super gelak/sickening but super tasty.
One word – WOW!
I don’t think I would want to waste my stomach space eating a durian that has a distinct lack of a odor and relatively bland taste. Good that you managed to finish eating it by having it for every meal. Although it does not have much taste but I think the flesh is still very nutritious.
Yup, looks like a Monthong to me! One of the ways you can tell is that the locules (there are five of them) go in kind of deep, so it looks kinda like a very misshapen flower from the top, whereas some durians are more full and roughly spherical when viewed from the top. Also, the thorns of Monthong are hooked.
I don’t really like fully ripe Monthong. I feel it has a stronger onion flavor than some when it is fully ripe and is best eaten half-ripe, the way the Thais do (the subtleties of durian tasting! lol) But I have to say I’d eat some right now if it were around!