An acquired taste that can prick your wallet
If you are a durian lover, then you are so doomed!
We now live in a time that the price that you pay for your acquired taste is as bizarre and freaky as the robust smelling delicacy itself.
It’s become quite unthinkable to stop along roadside stalls breaking long journeys across the countryside to indulge in one of our many National die hard habits, which is to savour on fresh durians as well as other local fruits and produce.
Enter the new business concept of cafes just serving durians and curtains down to the days when Malaysians just enjoyed squatting on roadsides to gobble up the fruit sold at throw away prices.
The top of the range of the fruit is known as the Musang King and has an asking price of RM 70 to RM 100 per kilogram, whereas, in China, people actually pay a King’s ransom to sink their teeth into its sweet yellow flesh.
A durian contains 5 or 6 pieces or fleshy seeds inside its compartmentalised thorny shell, with each piece selling for RM 60 in China and as much as RM 800 in Hong Kong for the whole fruit.
It’s still somewhat manageable if you were the only one in the family with a palatable affiliation to the fruit but just imagine how much it would hurt economically if the rest of your blood tribe had an equal addiction to the fruit.
Even though it seems to reflect as the National fruit but not everyone has an attachment to its freakish taste and smell, in fact, there are people who just hate it almost with a vengeance and are considered very lucky to escape the expensive dilemma by not being hooked on it.
A quick take on this strange fruit, it looks like a weapon or an explosive device, like a sea mine and it’s discouraged by strongly worded notices not to be snuck up into hotel rooms and public transportation. The creepy smell of the King of fruits crawls into the woodwork and everything else in its surrounding and remain embedded in it till it is fumigated to kill the smell or whatever they call ridding nasty smells.
The fruit has found its way into the condom industry where manufacturers have injected the flavour of this pricky fruit into the protective sheaths to spruce up the concept of contraception as well as adding a bite to its slogan of ‘Better safe than sorry’.
The other advantage one can clearly see from this entrepreneurial genius is that a pack of condoms can be a life saver to the many who would just die for a whiff of durian which is now much easier because it can comfortably fit into any wallet. Edit.