Nope, I Still Don’t Like Durian – Food in Malaysia

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It was a hot day. The ice-cream vendor outside the Central Market in Kuala Lumpur was ringing her bell invitingly; I stopped to look. On offer was durian ice-cream.

Now, I’ve tried durian in various ways from different vendors over the years, and I’ve never met a durian I liked. It’s not so much the smell, which is pretty aggressive – think over-ripe pineapple left to rot in the sun with an overlay of dog urine. For me it’s the texture, slimy and somehow unnatural, plus the fact your burps will taste like durian for hours after.

But I’d never tried durian ice-cream; maybe this would be magic.

The vendor saw my hesitation and offered me a sample. And – nope, I still don’t like durian, even in sweetened, frozen form. The vendor still made out OK, though. I had to buy a bowl of cappuccino ice-cream to get the taste of durian out of my mouth.

I found a lot of durian on this trip. Durian pastries, durian candy, fresh durian, preserved durian, and durian flavored coffee. The smell of durian coffee was enough for me to put the cup down without tasting. I think I’ve learned that this is just not something I want in my mouth.

I almost always find unfamiliar food when I travel. One of the items that is very popular in Malaysia is pickled and preserved fruit. That’s interesting in and of itself, but a lot of these items I couldn’t identify. And there were some things that were identified in English that were still unfamiliar to me, like dried nutmeg fruit. I was familiar with nutmeg as a spice, but not as a fruit. The dried slices reminded me of a cross between candied ginger and dried orange peel.

In general I like the food in Asia. One of the things I particularly look forward to are the pork dishes. In the US, we have bred our pigs to be very lean. When you breed out the fat, you breed out the flavor as well. Of course, little Miss Brain-child here neglected to take into consideration that Malaysia is a Muslim country, and outside of the Chinese areas, pork dishes were not to be had. Inside the Chinese areas, especially in Penang, I found some really lovely roast pork and rice. Yum.

Jalan Alor (jalan means street in Malay,) in Kuala Lumpur and the Red Garden Center in George Town were the two best hawker centers I found. Jalan Alor is several blocks long, and is crammed with restaurants and food stalls. Come evening, the restaurants set up tables in the street, and as you walk along, hawkers from the various restaurants and food stalls implore you to look at their menus, because their food is the best. Often times there is entertainment, sometimes just a couple with a microphone and a set of speakers singing Canto-pop favorites, sometimes a bigger spectacle sponsored by the restaurants along the street. You’d think a street like this would be closed to traffic, but no, you share it with cars and motorcycles and several hopeful cats. Needless to say, nobody moves too quickly. Every meal I had here was under RM 10 - about US$3, and every meal was good.

Red Paradise is a large fenced in area in George Town near the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the famous “Blue Mansion” UNESCO Heritage Site. If you ever wondered what happened to disco music, it came here to be played over the food stalls. Most of these stalls featured Chinese or Thai food at very reasonable prices. You could find a good, filling meal here for under RM 10; add a 22 ounce bottle of Tiger beer for RM 15.50, and you had dinner and drinks for about US$ 8. Not bad. I had some lovely roast pork and rice here.

Like in most hawker centers, you would order your food from one of the many independent stalls, and when it was ready, a runner from the stall would bring it to you. The only thing you ordered from your table was your drinks. My “beer waiter” a young Bangladeshi, would invariably bring me two glasses with my beer, just in case I wanted him to help me finish the bottle. (Nice try, no dice.)

George Town also has a large and vibrant Indian community. You’ll find lots of street carts serving nasi kandar, a rice and curry dish, and lots of restaurants in the five-foot way offering tandoori chicken and various curries. My favorite was Kapitan on Chulia Street, where I had a lovely chicken lunch with mint chutney and tamarind sauce. I also had lychee juice with my meal here. I like lychee juice, but I’ve usually had it from a carton. Here, they made it fresh by peeling lychees and pouring hot sugar water over them. Then ice is added, but the fresh fruit is left in the bottom, leaving a sweet treat at the end.

I found plenty of interesting things to taste, and a few – like Fish Snak – that I decided to skip. But I still don’t like durian.

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Photos

ice cream sellers
This lady offered me durian ice-cream.

Jalan Alor early
Tables, and cars, in the street

beer waiter
He was more than willing to help me finish the bottle.

Kapitan
good Indian food

chicken cheese
with mint chutney and tamarind sauce

chicken cheese after
all gone....

fish snack
I don't know if this was intended as a snack for fishes, or a snack made out of fish. Either way, I pass.

Fat Brother
Jalan Alor

Comments

[cabochick]

Just the mention of Durian make me gag. glah. I'd be like you and just navigate myself around it. Thanks for the blog!

[Kuan Yin]

And the worst part...
I think the worst part about eating durian is that your burps taste like durian for the next four hours. I am forced to drink beer and eat chocolate just to get the taste out of my mouth. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)