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| All three photos taken in Telok Bango, Sibu in September 2018. Thanks to Mr. Ting. |
The Chinese of Sibu enjoy eating the wild durians when they first arrived on the shores of Sarawak. Soon being agriculturalists, they started to cultivate the wonderful fruit and were successful. Today many Chinese own huge orchards of durians which are very pricey.
The durian flowers drop easily when there is a strong wind or storm. The flowers are edible. The flowers have five pale yellow petals, five bundles of stamens and a pistil. It is by nature that the flower parts will drop, leaving behind the pistil and the stigma, which later develop into baby durians.
Orchard owners would place a mat underneath the durian trees to collect the flowers which drop at night. Actually only the stamens are edible. Therefore there is usually a lot of sorting out before the flowers are washedm blanched and cooked. It is very a very tedious preparation for an excellent dish.
The stamens are best sauteed with curry powder, or as a lemak dish which means cooked with coconut milk. I like durian flowers fried with sambal belacan or shrimp paste. The stamens make a very crunchy dish when simply fried.
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