How to Pick a Sweet Durian

Durian from Magsaysay, Davao City, Philippines

How do you pick a nice, sweet Durian fruit?

We went to Davao City last thursday to conduct a special exam for Southern Mindanao Region. We stayed in a not-so-nice hotel (due to lack of budget), had to bear with a bed with lots of unidentified insects (heeyuck!), and a shower without heater (brrrrr...).

After 10 long hours of work, my boss asked me to accompany her to Magsaysay, it is a place known for Durian, Pomelo and Mangosteen. Honestly, I'm not very fond of Durian (for obvious reasons.. hehe!), but i still decided to go anyway. Besides, my boss has been really nice to me so i guess doing her a little favor wasn't really that big of a deal.

When we went out of the cab, we were mobbed by durian vendors.. All of them claiming that theirs was the sweetest. "Puyat, Native.. Mura lang".. "Ate, 45 lang isang kilo, buksan na natin?".. It was very confusing. They were saying the same things. Very inviting words. Everyone seemed to be telling the truth. But the question is, which one.. sells the best? Who can offer the best deal? We started from the nearest stand, until we ended up buying at the farthest part of the street. Believe me, it wasn't easy. We checked each and every stand.. One by one.. hoping, that we could find the sweetest durian in town.

Ms. Norms (my boss), decided to buy a Puyat Durian for 90 pesos. It was huge! the fruit was yellowish with small seeds. It was very enticing. But she got really disappointed when she found out that she picked a bitter-sweet variant. Apparently, she got the "reject" kind (i have no idea how that happened). So there she was.. wasting time, money and energy.. looking for something, just to feel disatisfied in the end.

We went back to the hotel feeling tired and super disappointed. It was bad enough that we didn't get a nice accomodation for the whole trip. And then, being tricked by some heartless vendors?! Waahh.. Mega-disaster! We have been very careful and choosy. We made sure that we stopped at each stand and checked if they have what we were looking for. We looked at the size, smelled each fruit, and even asked them to open it. We thought we did the right thing. We've been very keen. We did our best... Sad to say, it simply wasn't enough.

So, i go back to my foremost question.. How do we choose a nice, sweet durian?

To tell you the truth.. no one can really tell. Even an expert durian-lover can never tell.. They can guess.. and most probably be correct with their assessment. But they can never be sure. No one - can be so certain.. until you get to taste it yourself. So, take risks.. Experience the beauty of committing mistakes and the joy of living through victory!