On our first trip to Ho Chi Minh City, we stayed in one of the most touristy parts, just a few blocks away from the War Remnants Museum, the Independence Palace, and a beautiful, shady park full of enormous old trees.
Our choice of location had little to do with durian, and more to do with the park (Tao Dan Park), which I hoped would be a respite from the famous traffic, heat and noise of Ho Chi Minh City.
On our first morning walking down a shady avenue toward the park, we couldn’t help but notice a large inflatable durian beckoning us to go durian hunting.
If you’re passing by a Ho Chi Minh durian shop when you’re hungry and were excited to try the local durians anyway, would you ever say no and keep walking?
I didn’t think so 🤣
We certainly stopped and ate some durian!
Sầu Riêng Quang Minh
Sau Rieng Quang Minh is a durian specialty shop that only sells durian and a durian sugar cane milk shake.
The shop was fairly empty when we went in the mid-morning, but the staff at the back were busy opening durians for what seemed like a constant flow of Grab delivery drivers.
The most popular durian that morning was the fleshiest Monthong I had ever seen.
The durians themselves were on the bigger size of normal, but not extraordinary large.
But when he cracked it open and we got a glimpse of the flesh inside, it was shocking!
Each piece was so big he could barely hold it in one hand, and when he plopped a single durian pod on the scale it weighed in over 1 kilo!
Simply crazy.
I was pretty curious what it tasted like, but not curious enough to fork out for 1 kilo of durian that looked a whee bit on the crunchy side (although that thick skin can sometimes hide buttery cream within), so we turned our attention to another type of durian.
Ri6
There was plenty of Ri6 laying around partially open, being packed on styrofoam boxes to be stored in the small refrigerator.
Ri6 is one of the most famous durians in Vietnam, and is the one that is primarily exported to the United States and other countries (if you’ve ever had Vietnamese durian, there’s a good chance it’s this one).
We had been hoping to find Ri6 when we visited Buon Ma Thuot in the fall, but learned there at Ri6 is primarily grown in the Mekong Delta region, close to Ho Chi Minh. So we were pretty excited to find it!
It had a golden yellow glow, plenty of soft wrinkles, and looked pretty delicious. We did notice that many of the fruits had some tip rot, which can effect the flavor. So we were curious about that too.
Chuồng Bò
There was a third variety of durian sitting on the shelves that I desperately wanted to try, but unfortunately wasn’t ripe yet.
Chuồng Bò is supposed to be one of the oldest durian varieties in Vietnam, but I haven’t seen too much information about it’s origin story.
This is one that we will be hoping to try when we head to the Mekong area in a few days!
What we paid
We ended up buying 2 pieces of Ri6 from the refrigerator, knowing we could order more if it was good.
The seller placed two pieces on a styrofoam tray and weighed it, entering in the price per kilogram into the scale, which spit out a receipt.
The price was 550,000 VND per kilogram of pulp ($10.58 USD per pound).
At 280 grams for our two seeds, we paid 154,000 VND or $6.52 USD for two pieces of fresh durian.
Granted, we came in March, which was just the beginning of the season, and it’s also the tourist district of Ho Chi Minh. So I imagine the price was in the higher range of what you should expect.
How it Tasted
It was already a hot morning, and it actually felt really good to eat the slightly chilled durian. Like eating a frozen dessert!
The flesh was thick and soft, plenty to bite through, and it felt like eating ice cream.
The base flavor was sweet and caramel-ly, but it had the slightly acidic, slightly berry notes of durian that had been cut-harvested (not tree ripe) and then allowed to ripen off the tree. It hadn’t been cut too early, so it still had a nice rounded flavor and didn’t have any off flavors, which is important.
Durian is like wine. There are certain flavors that aren’t supposed to be there, and can signal the presence of mold, bacterial rots, certain chemicals, and other flavors the same way wine can have “goat barn” or “rubber” flavors when somethings gone wrong with the fermentation.
We’re durian spoiled, what can we say?
See those nice dark brown seeds? That’s part of how you know a durian wasn’t cut too early.
Thoughts
It was a great gift to find a decent durian shop so close to our hotel and so convenient. With the traffic in Ho Chi Minh, we were glad not to have to hoof it across town to go durian hunting.
I was impressed that they had 3 varieties to choose from, even during a low part of the season. The prices were automated, so I didn’t feel that there was any dishonesty just because I wasn’t a local. The staff felt friendly, smiled a lot, posed with us for pictures, and let us ask questions through Google Translate.
The durian quality was good enough. Nothing exceptional, but not bad at all. I think if I wasn’t me, an exceptionally durian spoiled person, we would have been quite happy.
As it was, we walked away satisfied and excited to keep durian hunting.
How to visit SẦU RIÊNG Quang Mingh
The shop is open from early morning to quite late at night, 7 days per week, so unless it closes randomly for a family event or a holiday (as can happen in SE Asia), it’s probably going to open any time.
It’s located within 2 blocks of the War Remnant Museum and 4 blocks from the Independence Palace, so it definitely fits into your scheduled sight-seeing activities.
Here’s their Facebook Page and a map to help you get started on your Ho Chi Minh durian adventures.
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