Idiot's Guide to Choosing Durians

- written by another idiot

its the time of the year where durians are aplenty... and being a durian lover, my dad sometimes buys lots of them back. im not very keen on eating durians, though i join him sometimes when he asks me to (think about the 'heat', the weight you are going to gain from it, and the smell that lingers in your mouth :S).

i remember when i was much, much younger, i used to follow my dad on his durian-hunting trips, and he taught me how to choose the better ones. i was too young to know then, but i had a refresher course today when he brought me durian-hunting again.

cheap durians at $1 each!

heres how to choose good (or at least passable xP) durians:

1. look at the stalk to determine the freshness of the durian. choose those that look nice! beware of broken, rotten or severely dried-up one.

2. look at the thorns. durians that have big thorns and with big spaces in between are preferred. (and i dont know why!)

3. check the exterior to see if any parts of the durian is rotted. its the inside that counts, but the outside might just tell you if the inside is rotten or not.

4. listen to see if the durian can sing! to do this check, you have to hold the durian close to your ears and shake it. if you can hear (or feel) the durian seeds moving inside, then the durian is definitely ripe!

exercise great caution when you carry out this step. this may be a little difficult for people with tender hands to carry out... i had problems handling the durian itself, let alone picking it up to shake it. it doesnt seem to affect my dad and his thick-skinned hands though.

the result: sweet and fleshy durian!

additional tip from zhengkang: i found out that red tea does wonders in removing the durian smell that lingers in your mouth! the thicker the tea, the more effective it is : )