Sunday 28 August 2016

A very thorny issue

In Malay culture, there is this peculiar term known as `saudara durian'. It is a sarcastic phrase which literally translates to `durian relative'. To properly explain its meaning, allow me to provide you with an example.

Let's say that you are a city-dweller. You have a relative back at your hometown or village who owns a durian orchard. At the time of the fruiting season, you would visit this relative and partake in the copious consumption of this delicious fruit (absolutely free, of course) with the further chance of the kind relative packing some more of the fruits to take home. At other times of the year, it never crossed your mind to visit this relative or even ask about his/her well-being. You are then a `saudara durian'.

Nasty, isn't it?

Well, I hope I'm not placed into such a category. I am not much of a durian kaki anyway. I very seldom buy durians from the market and can hardly tell the difference in taste between a D24 grade and the Musang King variety. Nevertheless, if some kampung relatives do send me some of these fruits, I gladly accept them. It is very impolite to decline such gifts.

Two weeks ago, I texted a cousin of mine, asking him about the yield of his durian trees. The previous year, he had dropped by my house and gave us a sackful of the so-called king of fruits. This time around, I noted that the local markets are already teeming with the thorny fruits but yet no news from my cousin of his harvest. He texted back, saying that this year's yield is not as bountiful as last year, but there is still more that enough for personal consumption. He invited us to visit his dusun so that we can collect some for ourselves.

Yesterday, the missus and I made the trip to Pontian and met my cousin at his fruit orchard. The orchard has about 15 durian trees plus some mangosteen, duku, rambai and rambutan. By the time we arrived, there was already a large pile of durians that my cousin had gathered. He sliced opened a few for us to eat. I probably ate only 4 or 5 seeds. Really, there is only so much that you can eat. Otherwise you should be prepared to experience the rise in body heat if you consume too much. The fleshy pulp of the durian fruit has this unnerving exothermic property.

In addition to the freshly consumed ones at the orchard, my cousin gave us a sackful to take home. The sack contained 9 fruits of various sizes. This morning the missus used 3 to make serawa durian and bubur kacang hijau. The remainder would cause that distinctive pungent smell to linger in our house for another few more days.

King of fruits, the kampung variety

6 comments:

Amelia said...

Hi Old Stock, how you doing? Me age caught up, now no longer a huge fan of durian. During my childhood, yes... a huge fan to the bit from morning to night all my 3 meals are durian with rice only. hahaha...

Its true, some relatives/friends you only see them when time to harvest fruits or around new year for free cookies...after that MIA you don't see/hear from them again until next year. I personally came across such people like as its we hutang them, so now I buat bodoh.

Have a great day, regards.
Amelia

Unknown said...

Assalam, in all my 68 years of living..this is the first time I heard of `durian relatives!' But in our case the `kampung folks' tempt us with the fruits to `balik kampung' because despite being `pakjak' to a local tokay, there were bountiful of durian fruits for anak-cucu-cicit BUT no takers.
We are all over TanahMelayu and KL, Selangor or Kedah are hardly seas away but few will make the trek back to Pekan, just for durians, Temerloh maybe!
A beloved relative passing attract us more than durians.
As for my own family..all of us are not into Durians or in its popular side delicacies, serawa, pengat or bubur kacang.Tempoyak and masak asam, yes!
Odd thing when even my younger sisters, my only son and all my 4cucu, can't stand the Smell..
We used to devour them when my late father's friend took us to his orchard in PayaMas, Tangkak and let 5 of us have a whole `bakol borong' of them.
Ah well, those were the `gila' durian days! Now its just the fruit Chinese too have gone `crazy for'never mind the Costs!
Thank Goodness, we will never be `Sedara durian!'

Fadhil said...

Hi Amelia. I'm doing ok. Hope you are fine too.

Like you, I used to like durian very much when I was younger. Nowadays, I tak kisah sangat... ada orang bagi atau belanja durian, I makan. Takde, I'm not bothered.

So when can we have tea together?

Fadhil said...

Salam Puan Sabihah. Firstly, thanks for dropping by and commenting. I guess your relatives are too polite to use the term `sedara durian', heheh...

Kg Payamas in Tangkak is one place that produces good durians. The other well-known and sought after variety is durian Segamat, which I've tasted once before (of course orang belanja lah, haha..)

Take care and hope you'll drop by again soon.

Anonymous said...

Assalamualaikum Saudara Oldstock..
Lama dah tak jengok awak..
Saya pun kalau orang kasi durian, memang tak tolak...
2 tahun lepas,pertama kali makan Durian Musang(Mausan)
di Balik Pulau,Pulau Pinang..memang sedap...
tapi harganya... mintak ampun MAHAL...
sekali sekala tak pe la.. hehe..

Salam dari Temasik
MieZarra..

Fadhil said...

Alaikum salam Puan MieZarra dari Temasik. Apa khabar puan dan suami? Orang kata durian Balik Pulau memang sedap. Saya sendiri belum pernah merasa, walaupun saya ada besan di sana :-)