I didn’t know Durio oxleyanus could get that much bigger than a softball until I saw it at the Keningau Night Market. The wild durians with curly green thorns were overgrown into volleyball giants. Keningau’s Night Market was already chock full of fruity surprises, with several other jungle durians and an assortment of pretty rare […]
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Grafted Wild Durian Hybrids in Limbang, Sarawak
Many people in Sarawak sell durian along the main roads during the season, usually in tied-up piles (ikat) or loose piles (tompok). One of the few places (maybe the only place) where you can sit-down to have a comfortable durian meal at a durian-stall-type setting, ala Peninsular Malaysia, is Madam Ting’s just 5km outside of […]
Pekan Lachau Jungle Fruit Bathroom Break | Sarawak
Pekan Lachau is a blip along Sarawak’s only highway, but it happens to be perfectly situated just far enough from everything that most travelers will need to pull over for a pee. It’s a great business opportunity that the local Iban tribespeople have taken advantage of, not only by charging for access to their mostly-clean […]
Limbang Durian Kura Kura | Sarawak
Finding durian kura kura (Durio testudinarum) in Limbang was annoyingly easy. It almost made me mad. It was just there, at the daily market, sold in a pile like every other random and equally rare fruit. A few years ago, I rode a bus over 36 hours, slept on the floor without a mosquito net, […]
Durio Dulcis: Fire Durian at Simpang Palas | Sarawak
Simon spotted the piles of bright red Durio dulcis before we’d even turned off the main road running from Limbang, Sarawak to the border with Brunei. They were just sitting by the road in piles of four next to all the other durians — the orange-fleshed Durio graveolens and waxy yellow Durio kutejensis and the […]
Sipitang Durian Lover’s Guide | Sabah, Borneo
For me, there was a Before Sipitang, and there was After Sipitang. Because Sipitang was the first place I experienced a real diversity of wild fruits I didn’t have a name for and didn’t even know how to look up, should I have had access to the internet. Which I didn’t, because I didn’t have […]
Epic Fruit Haul at Serian Market | Sarawak, Malaysia
The first time I went to the large, fruit-heavy Serian Market near Kuching, Sarawak it was a complete accident. I did not know the Serian Market existed. It was 2012, at the end of my first trip to Southeast Asia. We were staying in Kuching, and found out a Rafflesia was in bloom down in […]
The 10 Best Durian of 2017 – My Year in Review
When I tell you where I ate my 10 best durians of the year, I’m telling you a story about me. “Best durian” are deeply personal. They’re where I was and what I was doing and what was important to me when I ate them. This post, The 10 Best Durian of 2017 is essentially […]
Thomas’s Sarawak Durian Farm | Serian, Malaysia
In 2011, I sat in a tiny wooden room in Costa Rica waiting with baited breath as the phone rang and rang somewhere in a place called Sarawak. Thomas Teo picked up the phone. Back then, I didn’t understand that while Sarawak is the land of Durian with a capital D, a Sarawak durian farm that […]
Cooking Wild Durian, Buah Pakan, at the Saratok Market, Sarawak
The sun was still level with mist over the river when we wandered down to the Saratok Market. It was about 7 a.m, but while the town and me were still half-asleep, everyone at the market had apparently been drinking cham coffee-tea for hours. I was at a point with Sarawak’s morning markets where I’d […]
To Kapit Market (Pasar Teresang) up the Rajang River
I couldn’t help but look back nervously as the bullet boat roared away up the brown Rajang River. The tiny rental car, nicknamed the Pearl, grew smaller on the pier where we’d left her. No roads lead to Kapit. The only way to get there and scope out the Weekend Kapit Market, and search for rare […]
Durian at Jakar Sarawak Rest Stop
“Let’s make it a quick stop,” I said. If I had a watch, I’d have looked at it. But I needn’t have said it. Jakar Sarawak is small. Really small. From the highway, it looks like this: To be brutal, Jakar looks slummy. It’s a row of tin roofs and beach umbrellas crammed up against a […]
