A Weekend Date With Durians

Durian season has started. So does mangosteen and rambutans too. Last Saturday (31st July 2010) me, my cousin Ronny, my brother Aaron and SIL Tracy went to Telupid. We supposed to have an appointment with someone (regarding work) on Sunday so since my cousin Ronny has told us that durian season has started and his family's fruit orchard has began showing it's abundant harvest, we decided to drive to Telupid and then drove back to Ranau the next day.

We left KK at about 4pm. It was raining heavily and thick mist during our way to Ranau. Very cold too. Reminded me a little bit about going up to Genting. Stopped by at G-Mart supermarket to buy some groceries to bring to my aunt's place, just to give her something lah...as long as not coming over empty handed (my mom always reminded us this one).

Arrived at about 9pm - a nice home cooked meal waiting for us. My other cousins and children already arrived earlier than us - and the house was so lively with laughter and cries from the small children! After dinner...off course, the long awaited durian eating session begin - yours truly has stuffed herself crazy with durians, mangosteen and rambutans. It was still raining at 10pm - and bathing at the outdoor bathroom is so much fun!

The next morning, my cousins already feasted themselves with durians again for breakfast. The guys returned with another load of durians (on lorry!) that they collected since 5 am! So you can imagine that the house almost turned into a storage for durians already. Not to mention the rambutans and mangosteen as well as tarap!

After a hearty lunch and another feast of fruits, including takeaways to bring back home, we finally left at 2pm. I wish to stay longer - but what to do...have to go back lah...huhuhuhu...

Here's some of the photo I took:

Stopped by at the small stall selling durians in Tamparuli. Can't wait until arrive at Telupid to taste the durians! Though it's in season now, but it still expensive. Depends on certain type of durian, it can reach up to RM18 per kilo!

The heap of durians waiting for us when we arrived. Pick whichever we wanted. Most of all, it's free and we can eat to our heart's content! ^_^V

The view that greeted us in the morning from the house...

My aunty's house. Normally she only lives in this quite big house with my uncle. They had to stay here to manage their small palm oil estate. My other uncle lives nearby too. So it's not that boring. Plus, my cousins visits them from time to time as well.

Outside the kitchen where the family normally have their meals or just a casual chat (in this case, just grab the durian and start opening it, eating while gossiping away! Hehehe...). No fan needed as this place is always breezy! ^_^V

My uncle has a small pond in front of the house where he kept some fresh water fish including this one. My cousin said the fish can be hand-fed by just giving it a piece of bread on the palm of your hands and it will just nibble from it without fear. Too bad no bread...cannot try and see!

The flower I saw in the small fish pond...

I don't know what is it called, but I love the dark colours!

Mata Kucing (cat's eyes) fruit. Similar to longan (Dragon Eye) but this ones are the smaller type than the normal longans. Not as fleshy as the longans but still sweet and can be very expensive in the market. Too bad it's not yet ripe when we're there.

The family dog. My cousin said the dog too, fond of durians!

This is another type of fruit, called Tarap. It seems like this fruit also in season around here. Round and very firm yet soft when ripe, it also produced a sweet smell, though not as strong the durian. It has the 'short hair' like feeling on it's skin. The surface of the leaves is rough. When I was small, my grandmother used to take a piece of the dried tarap leaf use it to scrub pots. Sometimes, to scrub us, our bodies from dirt! Hahaha...!! The young tarap fruit can be cut into small pieces and cooked with meat, chicken or salted fish like you would do with young jackfruit (nangka). My aunt has several tarap trees around the house.

This is how the tarap fruit looks like when it's ripe. I don't know if it's available in West Malaysia or not (But most claimed they never seen one). White, soft and sweet. Sometimes we would dip several of the flesh into a simple batter made of flour and water and then deep fry it in the hot oil to make some tarap fritters, like you would do with cempedak or banana. The seeds from the tarap fruit can also be roasted like one would do with peanuts and it does taste like peanuts when its done! =)

The view from my cousin's orchard.

My brother, Aaron looked at the durians in awe =p

One of the durian trees that is laden with fruit. See how low it is that I can touch with ease?

A very satisfying weekend indeed! ^_^V