Happy New Year again, Durian Munchers! Now is the time of year when Richard and I sit down together and reminisce over the BESTest, most tastiest, most unusual and *outstanding durians* that we ate during the previous year. It’s not necessarily our top ten favorite durians of all time ever, but these are the ones […]
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Durian Trip to Jardin du Mekong | Chợ Lách Vietnam
My last Durian Trip to the Mekong Delta was 12 years ago. Since then, I’d dreamed of returning to the same areas to see them again with fresh eyes. As I cobbled together hazy memories of where I had been before, it became clear that I wanted to stay in Chợ Lách District in Bến […]
Ho Chi Minh City Durian Guide
Ho Chi Minh City’s fame is its traffic, not its durian. But as the Durian Boom makes southern Vietnam the second largest durian-growing region in the world, that’s about to change! Here’s your guide to having the best Ho Chi Minh Durian experience possible, any time of the year. When is the Ho Chi Minh […]
Ho Chi Minh Durian Shop – Sầu Riêng Quang Minh
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 […]
Durian Day Trip to Ea Tu Commune Buôn Ma Thuột City Vietnam
How we found ourselves in the Ea Tu Commune We were staying in Buôn Ma Thuột, Đắk Lắk, Vietnam and one morning a friend took us to visit several small durian farms in the mixed urban-agricultural outskirts of the city (see the Youtube video). As I peered out the truck window down a red-dust road […]
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 […]
Review of Frozen Vietnamese Durian, 3-Mien Brand | Portland, Oregon
I was excited the moment I saw the words “Vietnam” printed on the label. This was in the USA, and the durian was frozen, and it was sitting innocently between two packages of Thai durian pretending that the USA has always had choices when it comes to to durian. As I picked up the package […]
Vietnam Durian Varieties
This post was originally written in 2012 and has been updated. Vietnam has between 20 and 30 native varieties, most of them unnamed. There’s some debate whether durian first arrived from Thailand, Malaysia, or even the Philippines but there seems to be a mix of large-spiked Thai varieties and small-spiked Malaysian. Most varieties are very […]
Dak Mil Durian Village
Dak Mil is a very small town in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It’s only 180 miles from Ho Chi Minh, but the trip takes about 8 hours due to the poor condition of the road. We definitely weren’t sure what we were getting in to when we climbed on the overnight bus. I […]
