Fruits Galore

The durian season is back! This King of Fruit is back to tantalise afficionadoes with its distinctive aroma. The Sunday market had a few hawkers who proudly put their fruit on display and the durian fans were crowding around the fruit, examining it and hefting it to test its quality.

The aroma was beautiful! However to some who cannot tolerate the smell they would move far away.

I selected two durians at RM7.00 per kilo and they cost me RM34.00. Further on along the next block there were some more durians and I asked the vendor to select this time as he would know his fruit better. So he picked out another two, one of which was smaller and had an irregular shape. He said he would give that to me for a sum of RM2.00 as there would probably be only two large durian pulps inside. So these two came up to RM12.00. Irregular-sized fruit have less content in them but they taste better. I couldn't find any bitter ones as I prefer them to the sweet ones.Mangosteens were aplenty along the street. They were on average RM2.50 per kilo. They were small but the smaller ones are better as they would not have big seeds. I bought 8 kilos!! One fruit is only one pop into the mouth!!

Then I bought a papaya and some guava ( pink ) for my daughter.

The next fruit that I bought were rambutans. There are different species so I bought two types. Some are sweet but their flesh do not come off easily. Others have crisp sweet flesh that come off easily. This type is the rambutan kelapa ( coconut rambutan ). They are really excellent, with small flat seeds inside and lots of thick crispy flesh.

The last stop was the peanut vendor. She's from Kudat, a place famous for its groundnuts. They are very different from the Ipoh Mengelembu groundnuts. The Kudat groundnuts are more aromatic and their skin comes off very easily although you can eat them as well once the shells are removed.

It was a great Sunday morning, coming home with two loads of fruit. My basket could only contain so much so I made two forays, the first time loading it with durians, mangosteens, papaya and guava, the second time, more durians, mangosteens, rambutans and custard apples.

Sunday is the best day in my week as I love to look at the different stalls in the street with their different offerings of fruit, homemade cakes, trinkets, clothes, hardware, drinks, CDs, plants and vegetables. Mangoes are out of season already but the duku langsats are coming in. There weren't many so I didn't buy any as they are now very expensive. Fruit is always expensive at the beginning of the season. It's better to wait until mid-season when there are loads of them and the price comes down. Hee, hee, hee! Then your money can go further and you can get more fruit!