I mean, I also almost forgotten about this blog too.
Almost lost the interest in durian and durian writing these few years and I've eaten no more than 3 times per year since Covid.... mental fog maybe.
Durian has almost became a distanced dream that I hardly crave for. I lost the lust actually! There's no more 'I can't live without durian' mindset. What happened?
The last few years, I've hardly had any good durians that will blow the grey matters out of my skull. Ok fine, admittedly, there isn't much grey matter in there anyway.
What's so nice about Mao Shan Wang (MSW)? Ok sorry if you are a MSW lover, no offense intended. But really, it doesn't give me any kick, it's completely anti-climax... imagine when the lust is so sexually high, and than comes MSW, even the old dragon becomes a worm in me. MSW, it's too predictable!
I've not had any good MSW for years. The MSW that is considered good, to me strictly, is when it has that omph factor of a freshly brewed coffee in the local coffeeshop, that strong aroma and that wake me up factor. I can't recall when I last had such omph factor MSW.
Ok I did the story telling.
Today, was having coffee at a coffeeshop (ok there's no omph factor in the coffee, it was kinda stale anyway) when we decided to try out durians at the nearby shop.
The varieties were good. There's D13, D56 (don't know what's that, have not try it before I think), D88, Shen Xian Guo, XO, Tekka, MSW.... anymore? Dunno, din ask what they have.
We tried 3 variants, XO, Shen Xian Guo and Tekka.
Tekka is one of my favourate durian, so naturally, I would like to try it. But it wasn't really that good. It was half good, half han-zi (literally translated as, sweet potato, and a term to describe half ripe, bland, etc). It's not the type of Tekka that will make me rave.
Shen Xian Guo was recommended to me by the boss. I didn't have much impression of Shen Xian Guo as I last ate it many years back and it doesn't leave an impression. So the boss corrected my wrong understanding of it and I must give him credit for proving my ignorance. The one he opened for us has a nice tone of lighter shade of yellow, winkly and soft flesh.
Hmmmm I like it! It's got that mild stickiness, yet soft but not runny, flesh. The taste was quite kampong durian taste, which has better depth than average graded durian variant. It's midly bitter sweet. Not too bitter nor sweet. Quite balance overall.
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Lastly, XO. To me, a good XO is usually creamy beige color tone and not white. White XO are mainly just bitter, but lacks flavor (hmmm maybe taking paracetamol is good enough). A creamy beige flesh tends to be more flavorful. It's not strong tasting, but XO just has it's uniqueness compared to many durians.
The XO we had, was creamy beige in color. The flavour was definitely what I would considered a good XO, as it's not just bland bitter.
It's also quite value for money, given that the shell is quite thin mostly, and usually round thus you get 5 or 6 sides. The seeds are usually small, which means, you get more flesh. The down side, the a good XO is usually soft till it may even be runny to some.
Conclusion.
Out of the 3, XO definitely win somehow. Shen Xian Guo was good. Tekka, forgettable. Overall, it was good enough to fill the stomach, but not good enough to make me crave to have durian again tomorrow. Well, I'll wait a week or so, before I may try having durian again.
The peak season should be arriving in about 1-2 weeks, and prices will likely come down a bit, and quality goes up too.
Pardon the bad photos, wasn't really keen to take so didn't assemble the durians like soldiers in a parade
