While the merits of durian are hotly debated to me it is simply a npc brainer as I freaking love it. Therefore when I saw a street food stall advertising cendol durian I was sold.
Did I know what cendol durian was? Of course not, but that is where my sense of adventure and iron clad stomach step in!
JahBau@PasarChowKit
Jah Bau, or to give it its proper title JahBau@PasarChowKit is 2-3 street food stalls that are operated into a fruit stand, fruit juices as well as the whole Cendol Pulut Durian thing – we will deal with the food part later.
These stalls cover an area next to a gas station, opposite 7-Eleven and opposite from the infamous slightly lower standard Garden Inn Hilton.
The fruit stand
One the left hand side there is a whole plethora of fruits all sold at decent prices. I cannot remember exactly how much everything was, but compared to Cambodia at least it was pretty cheap.
And while they had a good range of fruits, it was the local specialities that I had a go at. This included jackfruit, as well as the enormously underrated mangosteen fruit.
Durians are also for sale, but they are best brought and eaten from the dessert stand.
Cendol Durian
So as stated what grabbed me here was the cendol durian, which cost about $4. This is essentially a very Asian style desert with my trying very similar stuff throughout Indonesia, such as in West Papua.
Cambodia also do similar dishes, while Halo Halo of the Philippines is iconic.
So, what does cendol durian consist of? Well there are different variants to this, but essentially shaved ice, coconut milk and the weird colored jelly that is so popular within these parts. Said jellies unlike what we get in the west are often made with rice flour. This makes it unique to say the least.
Then small bits of durian are added and you eat it very much as a a dessert. And because things are hot as it melts the durian fuses with the ice and the coconut milk to create a fruity sensation. A really great dish and a must try if you end up seeing it in Malaysia and beyond.
Fruity shakes and fresh durian
But that was far from all they had to offer with there also being a fine set of fresh juices that cost a mere 6 Ringit, or under $1.50. for me this got a blended mango drink that also included succulent pieces of mango at the top. This smoothy was so good you needed a straw with it….
And last but not least I got me a whole durian for the princely sum of about 5$. This may sound expensive, or cheap depending on your take on things, but durian is no cheap date. Turns out it was so cheap because the fruit had not yet fully ripened, but we walked in with full knowledge that we could have easily spent 4 times as much to get top notch stinky fruit.
This though was at least enough for me. In actuality I was simply grateful I could try some durian in Malaysia without also having to remortgage my house..
Durian is after all pretty much the national dish of the country. You will though have to eat it on site with the stinky fruit banned from all hotels, not to mention all forms of transport!
While not currently on our tour list I do offer other adventures in South-East Asia, eating a durian is optional here…