It’s durian season! Starting in May and ending around July, the durians in the Malayan Peninsula start fruiting and emitting their pungent aroma, their thorny flesh hiding large orange seed pods encased in a creamy flesh. These days, durians are available all year round thanks to plantations in Thailand, but it’s in this period where the most varieties of durian from the region become available. In Singapore, we don’t have durian plantations (we seem to be a nation of eaters rather than a nation of growers), but there are certainly one or two spots where you can find native durian trees growing.

Did you know that the name durian has Malay roots? ‘Duri’ is the Malay word for ‘thorn’ and looking at the durian the name is aptly placed. Chun See writes about five places in Singapore where you can still see the durian growing freely – check out his post here. You’re welcome to add onto his list there – apparently durian trees can be quite commonly found in the forested areas of Singapore. I wonder if any durian connossieurs reading this can tell us the difference between our local durians and other culinary varieties such as the D24 or the Cloud Pillow.