I did a takeaway on just one single packet costing 20 ringgit , just to test this new trader out the other day .
The first bite triggered something in me . I remembered having eaten it as a child , the taste was all at once , grassy , nurturing , comforting , lightly gassy midway , with a potent climax at the last bit , and so we returned again for more .
Now , I could tell you where this stall is located but I don't want to do that as that would just spoil it for us .
The place I revealed the last time in this blog of mine has turned into a tourist trap with outrageous prices for the worst durians I never imagined I would ever taste on Penang soil .
Anyway , since he IS new and hasn't found a regular crowd yet , we had some time to chat .
I like how he was honest about his origins as well as the fruits origins . He said these Green Skins were from Balik Pulau and the Black Pearl was from Pahang .
And although he spoke perfect Penang hokkien , he himself , is originally from Pahang .
* shocking *
( sarcasm intended )
These Green Skins used to cost 24 ringgit for a large fruit back in 2014 . Fast forward to today , 2017 , we had to cough up 109 ringgit for this !
Ya , well , some people grumble that we can't even eat the skin since the entire fruit is weighed with skin on . What to do , despite it being this costly now eh ? You gonna turn the thorns into some punk outfit or take the trouble to crush it to a pulp and get paper material out of it ? Guess not .
Was it worth it ? After the barren spell where we thought all our durians had been shipped off to China ? You betcha .
Penang durians that are good , are particularly ultra sticky , like peanut butter sticky , and creamy , but if you ask any of these durian traders , who mostly come from other states to do business in Penang , even those from Kedah and Perak , they will always insist that Pahang durians are the best our country has to offer .
True blue Penangites will on the other hand , insist that Penang durians are way better .
Room for argument there .
And that's partly why we picked out this Black Pearl durian below .
38 ringgit for so few orange shaded pieces .
Now lemme try to describe the taste to you .
When you take the first bite of this membrane , the surface is like nibbling on a startlingly refreshing slate of ice cold river water , which melts into a surprisingly delightful trickle of sugary solution flowing over your tongue , before the other imbedded flavours burst out , to put you in a semi euphoric state .
Such drama over one fruit .
Hell yeah .
Some purists will mention that durians with these names originate from Thailand .
Right and wrong .
See , most fleshy durians are all hybrids at one point or the other , as real Malaysian durians have a super thin skin . Thai durians are way fleshier , thus farmers married the two and as a result got the best of both worlds so to speak .
So out of the two which did I prefer ? While the Black Pearl was dramatic , I much preferred the peanut butter sticky dry texture of the Green Skin Penang specimen .
But if you were to present me with that 20 ringgit durian from my childhood , and put it in front of me again , I would say , yes , the cheaper Pahang durian wins hands down despite the watered down taste which is not as robust as those from Penang .
Because after all , our preferences are shapped by our neural responses towards what we love best , or a familiar taste in this case and although others may insist that the most expensive is the best , that's not always the case either .
All boils down to a matter of personal preference .
Location : Penang
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