Cameron Highlands - More than a Land of Strawberry

Cameron Highlands. Everywhere we go, strawberries are everywhere. From the strawberry farms to the strawberries theme souvenirs for tourists.

Strawberries growing on pots in the farm. Year end is not really a good time to visit as it is too cold and most of the bigger strawberries would have been harvested.

Dried preserved strawberries for sale. Nice but too much salt and sugar added though.
 

Strawberry fondue


Of course, Cameron Highlands is also famous for its tea and the most famous is the Boh Tea plantations which dot the mountains making for a very postcard picture.

One of the must do when in Cameron Highlands is to trek through one of the numerous mountains. Weather is great most of the year so it makes for a great trek unlike hot humid Singapore. There are lot of trails to trek, lots of things to see like stick insects and exotic plant. We even spotted a lingzhi growing one of the trees. More on trekking here
on
Unfortunately like everywhere else, Cameron Highlands is fast succumbing to development both legal and illegal. Large tract of lands are being cleared for farming and hotel development. There is a perpetual traffic jam along the main road and the air is no longer as cool as it used to be.

Durian Durian Durian

Times flies and it is the durian season again and time for another round of durian gorging. After 2 unsuccessful attempt, I finally managed to round up enough people to qualify for the durian buffet at our usual durian haunt.

The unique thing about this durian feast is that for $25.00 each, we get to eat unlimited. None of those kampong durian or anything that goes for 2 or 3 for X dollars type of durian. Here we got get premium durian like

Black Pearl - indisputably the best with its slightly wet flesh and small seed

Mao Shang Wang- the king of all but too rich and big for us. This was left to the  last

Palai - a new breed that we have not tried enough. Creamy, soft and tasty. One of the best

D13 - very bitter 

XO - everybody complained it was too wet

Red Prawn - always my favourite. 

Pure durian bliss. But good things cannot eat too much especially heaty food like this. So contend myself with a little of each. The stall holder allowed us to tapao the balance even those not opened!

Definitely worth every single cent of the $25!

Bukit Brown Cemetery 2

Bukit Brown has more than grave and tomb stones. In fact everywhere we walked, we can hear birds chirping away. There are beautiful flowers everywhere and plenty of insects. I managed to snap a few pictures although it sure was darned difficult to get a good close up without a macro lens.

Noni fruit

Durian Pilgrimage

For the third year running, I return to the hallowed stall of durian for the annual durian pilgrimage. This time round, there were 9 of us, the biggest group so far, I think.

The stall holder seems to want to get rid of his durians. He keep opening durian after durian until we were truly stuffed.

First up was the Black Pearl durian. This was simply shiok. Super creamy, a little bit wet with teeny weeny  little seed.

Next was the Red Prawn. This one, the flesh is supposed to be a bit reddish but it wasn't really so. It was however, just as creamy.

After that came the D13 or is it D17?. By now all the durian tasted the same to me and I really couldn't differentiate which was which.

Following that was the Jin Feng or Golden Phoenix. This one tasted very nice but most of us were too stuffed to really appreciate it.

The final type was the giant size cat mountain king alias Maoshanwang.

We couldn't finish all the durians and so the kind stall holder packed up the uneaten durians.

I think between the 9 of us, we had more than 20 durians and all for $25.00 per head! Shiok shiok!

Red Kiwifruit

Following in the foot step of the peaches and plum, the kiwifruit grower in New Zealand has come up with a new variant to the green kiwifruit - the red kiwifruit.

The trend of fruit growers to mix and grow is growing intensity. There was the yellow dragon fruit, (a cross between the lemon and dragon fruit I think), the pluot (a cross between plum apricot), and something that I have yet to see here a grapple which is supposed to look like an apple and taste like a grape.

So anyway was at the supermarket and saw this red kiwifruit for sale and had absolutely had to try it.

Cut it open and it was such a big letdown. No red flesh just some reddish hue around the seed. What about the taste? This one was soft to the touch so it should have been ripe but it tasted too tangy and was a bit too hard for my liking. Not like the soft sweet juicy gold kiwi. So I guess this mutant fails.

But what else will they come up with next? A banana & strawberry? Or how about a watermelon with a pineapple?

Durian Party 1

First durian party of the year and we went back to Ah Loon & Ah Teck of East Coast Road fame.
atering fart and burp inducing wallop of a fruit. And buffet no less! At $25.00 per head, it was a steal considering that each type of durian at the stall sells at an average o$12.00 - $15.00 per kg.

At first we were quite apprehensive about the buffet. Will we be gettif ng our $25.00 worth or the flow of durian be a trickle? The 2 kind gentlemen started us off first with the Red Prawn. 4 of them for 12 of us? Like not enough. But they some came round with another 4. And then it was on to the Golden Phoenix. These 2 small breed durian were superb. Each with its unique taste, it was just the beginning of more good things to come.

Because their fresh stock of durian had not yet arrived, we were next given the giant of a whopper – the Mao Shan Wang. These came with big whooping soft and pungent flesh and we were soon stuffed and couldn’t quite finish off the whole lot.

Then the lorry came and the first fresh batch of D24 landed on our table. Actually, we were quite stuff already but nevertheless you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth so down it went.

This was immediately followed by the Black Pearl, and in many of our opinion, the best of the whole lot. But not to the sellers though – they claimed they reserved the best for us – the XO durian. But seriously most of us were so full that nice as it is, we really had no more space in our stomach for more and had to wave the white flag.

And on a scale of 1 – 10, this has to be the best durian feasting ever and I shall rate it a 12. Go and try before the durian season end!

Korean Melon

Picked up this interesting looking fruit from the Sun Moon outlet.

It is a Korean Melon. About the size of a dragonfruit or a large apple, this looks like a cross between a bell pepper and a papaya. The inside looks like a winter melon and taste like a rock melon but not as sweet. More like the big Korean pear. The skin can be eaten too.

At $2.00 a pop, it is not exactly cheap but according to this, it is low in fat, calories and sodium, melons are cholesterol-free. A good source of vitamin C, plus some potassium, melons offer dietary fiber. Er cheaper than a scoop of Ben & Jerry?

Seafood and Durian

This evening a group of us went to ulu Yio Chu Kang to a small little eatery known as Crab Party. There was no crab partying there. In fact if I am a crab, I wouldn't be partying there cos crabs get eaten there big time.

After reading about how this place was supposed to be a spin off from the Still Road crab place, had decided for quite some time to try it out but never actually got round to it until today.

What did we had? Naturally, crabs - 1 black and 1 red plus some other stuff.

The black pepper crab was much better than the chili crab which was a tad to sourish for most of us. The crab was of medium size and cost around $45 each which was a pleasant surprise as I had expected the prices to be on the high side.

The other items we had was the garlic prawn, coffee pork rib, cuttlefish kangkong and the sinfully fried pork knuckle.

It was a mistake to order this as it left most of us pretty full with not much space for the highlight of the evening.

Durian. Cos 717 durian was just a stone throw away and we couldn't pass it up so we trooped there after the rather heavy meal and forced ourselves to gorge down $10 worth of mangosteen and 3 D24 durian.

How was the food? Let's just say the price is reasonable but I really don't think there is any compelling reasons to go back there again. Don't get me wrong. The food isn't half bad but I can think of many many places with much better seafood and crab. In fact we were already discussing over dinner to go to a certain place in AMK or go for lunch on a little island even more ulu than YCK.

As for the durians, we didn't get to try any of the more exotic brand and since we were already pretty stuff, I think most of us was thankful we only ordered 3. Still the standard of durian at 717 is always pretty consistent and certainly we have no complains.

Excuse me while I go to burb.

Durian Durian

How time flies! Last year around this time, went for a durian party and now I'm back with a different group of friends.

Wanted to go back to Four Seasons at Joo Chiat but was told it had closed down already. Well no problem, a click on ieatishootipost and voilia, a new outlet to try.

This one is just a teeny weeny little stall along East Coast Road. Not like those mammoth stalls in Geylang or Balestier. Fortunately, our objectives was to savour the good quality durians - not the kampung type as the stall only carries so called 'branded' durians.

We first tried the Red Prawn and all agreed it was so so. Not really a big deal.

Next we had the Mao Shan Wang which was a gigantic size durian with equally huge seed. At $13/kg, this was the most expensive and we had high expectation. Okay this was good but to our surprise and delight, what we took next beat the King of the Durian.

It was a no contest. David vs Goliath and David came out top. The 2 small little JIn Feng (Golden Phoenix) we had was absolutely wonderful. They were so small yet there were so many seeds inside. The fragrance (some prefer to call it odour) was not so strong and overbearing. I can't really describe the taste but it was to use a term my friend used frequenlty "shokalicious'.

So we ordered another 2 Jin Feng but after that the cunning stall holder came out with another tempting offer. A durian that he had hoard - a Black Pearl!

He claimed he had only 2 left and asked us to try. So we took one only cos we were quite jalat by then and yah we had no regrets. It was good - it smell and taste unlike any other durian. I will go as far as to say this is the best of the lot but at $10/kg, I think we will stick with the little JIn Feng which cost only $7/kg.

Killer Fruit

Right at the top of the killer food chain is nicotine but this one most people willingly smoke themselves to death.

Then there are poisonous food such as certain species of mushrooms and berries and of course the famous fugu. Oh yah and peanuts.

Add to the list - star fruit. Yes star fruit! Got this email that claims star fruit is deadly to kidney patients. Apparently Universiti Malaya Medical Centre consultant nephrologist said that star fruits contain a neurotoxin which is not present in other fruits. It affects the brain and nerves. In healthy persons, the kidneys filter it out. But for those with kidney problems, this potent toxin cannot be removed and will worsen the consumers' conditions.

Didn't unearth anything from the UMMC's website. Is this one of those hoax mail? So fact or fiction?

Durian Fiesta

I do not usually crave for durian but ever since receiving an email from a friend introducing the various type of durian from Penang, some how I had this insatiable craving for it. There must be a sublime message inside the email!

Anyway, to satisfy the craving, roped a few of the running kakis and went to Still Road to try out the newly opened Four Seasons Café. Older foodies will remember the Four Seasons’ durian pastry. That plus the review in ieatishootipost made it a die die must try!

Our strategy for the dinner feast was to try 1 or 2 of the very expensive durian followed by those 3 for $10 type so that we don't have to burn in our pocket for it. However, after ordering 1 Maoshanwang ($20 per kg) and 1 Ang Heh when we tried to ask for the cheaper durians, the guy told us not to try. He said after eating the Maoshanwang, we will not want to eat anything else. Maybe intoxicated by the strong durian odour, we caved in and let the guy picked the durians. The damage: $200.00 for 5 durians comprising 1 Maoshanwang, 1 D24, 1 Xo, 1 Ang Heh and 1 (didn't catch the name) which was supposed to be available only around this time and has hugh seed.

How to describe the durian? Durian is something that one like or don’t like. And a lot has to do with the smell. Food being a very subjective thing; it was difficult to say which was the best. However, all was in agreement that the Maoshangwang did not live up to its Kingly title. Halfway through 2 of the durians, we discover some seeds were not ripe and the stall gave us 2 new ones in exchange. Bravo! So in the end we had about 7 durians.

Our nutritionist friend calculated the 8 of us consumed 6637.50 calories in total but that I think is a small price to pay for 1 night of pure shiok bliss! And 1 long run can burn that off so can go and eat again!

All about Durian

Tis the durian season and so in the spirit of durianess, here’s some things about durian:

Durian is a perennial tree that can be cultivated in tropical rain forest and bears fruit after 4-5 years, depending on the variety. Its life can last from 80 to 100 years with the trunk diameter of 1.5-4.0 feet and height over 70-80 feet. Durian is classified as soft wood. Source: http://www.dit.go.th/agriculture/durian/varietie.htm

NUTRITIONAL VALUE:

Nutritional content of durian per 100 grams (about 3 fruits with seed) are as follows: 150 calories, 3 grams of protein, 3.5 grams of fat, 28 grams of carbohydrate, less than 1 gram fibre. Source: http://www.nutrition.com.sg/atd/atdfood.asp.

FACT OR MYTHS:

Durian and alcohol should not be consumed together. The combination can cause death. Read here for more.

Durian is heaty so drink salt water from the husk after eating durian to counteract the heatiness.

Mangosteen neutralizes the heatiness of durian that is why these 2 fruits are always in season together.

Durian has ‘eyes’ and never fall on a person’s head.

The Malays consider durian an aphrodisiac. "When durians fall down, sarongs go up!" they say.

True or false? Anybody can enlighten me?

TYPE OF DURIANS

There are easily a few hundred varieties of Durian. Most of the durian in Singapore are from Thailand and Malaysia. Following are just some of the not so common durians from Penang. Look at their names! Wait - don't drool on your keyboard!

D11
'Number Eleven' was a very popular durian in the 70's. It has creamy yellow flesh with a pleasant taste and a subtle smell.





D17 is dark cream flesh. The taste is slightly dry but sweet. It is a tasty durian.







D604
The D604 was first cultivated by the late Mr. Teh Hew Hong of Sungai Pinang, Balik Pulau. The flesh is quite sweet, and has some 'body' to it as the seed is small.







D600
This durian originates in Sungai Pinang in Balik Pulau. The flesh has a bittersweet taste to it, with a touch of sourness.









Ang Sim (Red Heart)
Ang Sim is a durian with flesh which is quite soft and very sweet, and dark yellow in colour. It also has a nice aroma.







Khun Poh
This durian takes the name of the late Mr Lau Khun Poh, who first budded it. Khun Poh has beautiful orangy flesh with a slightly bitter-sweet taste and a heavy aroma.










Hor Loh (Water Gourd Durian)
The flesh of the Hor Loh is very soft, dry and quite bitter. It has a sharp smell to it. Hor Loh was first cultivated at the Brown Estate of Sungai Ara. It got its name from its appearance resembling a 'Hor Lor' pumpkin. If the durian hits the ground hard when it falls, the flesh tends to be bitter thereafter.




Ang Heh (Red Prawn Durian)
Ang Heh originates from Pondok Upeh, Balik Pulau, and has a round-shaped husk. The orange-reddish flesh is highly aromatic, very soft with a bitter-sweet taste.






Xiao Hung (Little Red Durian)
Xiao Hung, whose name means 'Little Red One,' originates in Sungai Pinang, Balik Pulau. The flesh has a bittersweet taste to it, with a touch of sourness. There are only one or two seeds per section, but the flesh is thick.




Yah Kang (Centipede Durian)
Yah Kang is one of my favourite durians. Although its flesh is whitish, the taste is superb, milky, like very sweet, melting chocolate. The name 'yah kang' means centipede, and accounts for the number of centipedes found at the foot of the tree, hence giving it the rather unusual name.




Bak Eu (Pork Fat Durian)
Bak Eu has a slightly acidic aroma. The flesh is whitish while the taste is quite bitter but nice.










Coupling
This durian got its unusual name because it looks like two durians joined together, one big and one small. When split open, you almost thought the two halves belong to two different durians. Coupling has whitish flesh which is slightly dry but tastes good.





Ooi Kyau (Tumeric Durian)
The name Ooi Kyau (tumeric) describes the colour of the bright yellow flesh of this durian. It is very sweet and tasty.




Chaer Phoy (Green Skin Durian)
Chaer Phoy is shaped like a small canteloupe. The skin is bright green, giving it the name which means 'green skin'. Chaer Phoy has creamy white flesh which is a bit dry, not too sweet but tasty.




Ang Jin (Red Yoke Durian)
As the name suggests, Ang Jin Durian has deep orange flesh. It is very sweet and tasty.





Lin Fong Jiau
This durian is named after Lin Fong Jiau, aka Mrs Jackie Chan. I wonder whether it is indicative of the relationship of the celebrity couple


Source: from an email

WHERE TO FIND DURIANS:
Fruits: Fruit stalls along Geylang/Upp Serangoon,/Eunos and any HDB estates, Four Seasons
Durian Pastry: Puteri Mas, 717, Emicakes, Goodwork Park Hotel, Angie
Durian Pudding: Swissotel Merchant Court

Some interesting sites about durian

An angmoh account of durian
Singaporean and durian
And of course the ultimate authority on food in Sg: ieatishootipost