NEWS OF THE DAY ~ Durian the "King" of fruits

DAILY EXPRESS

January 28 2012

Durian - the 'King' of fruits

By: Anthea Phillipps 

 DRIVING down to Beaufort the other day, we suddenly realized that after an unusually wet year without almost any fruit, the durian season was finally here and piles of this most famous (or infamous!) of fruits were appearing at the roadside stalls.

So popular is the durian that it is often called the "King" of fruits but though it is now grown all over South-east Asia, its original home is thought to be Borneo, the only area where truly wild trees have been found, though these are rare, and the durians being sold, whether along the roadside or in the markets, are cultivars, the result of decades of selective breeding.

The name 'durian' comes from the Malay word 'duri' for thorn, referring to the sharp spiky fruits; and the scientific Durio also derives from this source.

The well-known cultivated species is Durio zibithinus, the word 'zibithinus', coming from the Italian 'zibetto' for civet, referring to the strong odour. In fact the smell is so pervasive that it is a forbidden item of luggage on aircraft, in taxis and buses and is banned from hotels throughout the region. Nevertheless the Durian has been a favoured fruit since ancient times.

Burkill, in his "Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula", (1966), states that the Burmese kings used runners to bring them durians, but early western explorers differed widely in their perception of the fruit.

Over 400 years ago, the Dutch traveller, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, while in the employ of the Archbishop of Goa, (then a Portuguese colony), in India, gave one of the first accounts of the durian.

Writing in 1596 in his "Itinerario", he said, "É.there is no fruit in the world to be compared with itÉ.in taste and goodness it excelleth all kinds of fruitsÉ".

It was to be another 250 years before the explorer Alfred Russell Wallace, famously wrote in his “Malay Archipelago", in 1869, "In Borneo I found a ripe fruit on the ground and eating it out of doors, I at once became a confirmed Durian eaterÉ

This pulp is the eatable part and its consistence and flavour are indescribable.

A rich butter-like custard highly flavoured with almonds É intermingled with wafts of flavour that call to mind cream cheese, onion sauce, brown sherry and other incongruities.

Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses - but which adds to the delicacy.

It is neither acid nor sweet, nor juicy, yet one feels the want of none of these qualities for it is perfect as it is. It produces no nausea or other bad effect and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop.

In fact, to eat durians is a new sensation, worth a voyage to the East to experience."

The durian is a small to large tree, with leaves covered in very distinctive silver or golden scales on the underside.

The large, white flowers are borne along the branches - the round spiky fruits that follow, are so heavy only the branches can support their weight.

In the evening the air in a flowering durian orchard is heavily laden with the scent of honey that attracts bats to pollinate the flowers.

The flowers contain large amounts of watery nectar, a delicious drink which the bats lap up, becoming covered in pollen in the process.

In the morning as soon as it is light, whatever nectar is left is eagerly sought after by bees, especially the giant honey bees, Apis dorsata, which will even explore flowers already fallen on the ground.

Squirrels, too, have been seen nibbling the nutritious flowers.

The heavy, thorny fruits generally fall to the ground before splitting open longitudinally to reveal the large shiny brown seeds embedded in the cream-coloured pulpy arils.

The durian is best eaten at a wayside open-air stall or when bought from a roadside vendor.

The Chinese say it is 'heaty' and should never be taken with alcoholic spirits. It is, however, a highly nutritious fruit containing large amounts of Vitamin A, B and C as well as minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium and sodium; also goodly amounts of protein - almost a complete meal in itself.

Drinking salt-water from the rind is said to remove both the smell and the 'heaty' effect after eating, and in Sabah, children being given their first taste of durian will often be given water from the rind with a pinch of salt afterwards, to reduce the heatiness and its side effects such as dizziness.

In Kuching in 1989 it was reported by municipal council officials that during the peak of the durian season, 10,000 durians were consumed daily, causing a thorny problem for the refuse collectors!

The petals from the flowers are delicious when fried and the seeds can also be boiled or roasted, while the pulp is often made into jams, cakes and even ice-cream. Traditional delicacies such as 'lempuk', a Malay cake and 'dodol durian', a sticky confection of coconut juice, sugar, flour, eggs and durian pulp are still relished.

The ground-up rind, rich in sulfur, is said to ease heartburn while fresh rind is used to discourage bedbugs and the fruit has long been regarded as an aphrodisiac.

But this well-known durian is not the only one in Sabah - watch out for Part II next week on the Borneo's less well-known wild durians.