Since starting my reviews on reliable and honest durian sellers, I have covered most of the durian 'celebrity' sellers - Such as
Combat Durian,
Sembawang Durian Seng,
Ghim Moh Ah Seng and
Kong Lee Hup Kee Trading. These sellers are synonymous with selling durians, and having been selling durians for 30-40 years. For those new to the world of durians, the aforementioned sellers are a great place to start. In the future, though, I will be shinning a light on other lesser known durian sellers in Singapore. Today's post is focused on a seller named Ah Chai. He runs an extremely popular stall in Bedok South, which always get hoards of customers, especially in the evening. This is a very simple stall with no sign or anything like that. Nevertheless, it is easy to spot as it is just outside the Boston Bakery shop. Ah Chai and his workers will not be able to communicate with you in English (I tried, failed, and switched to speaking Mandarin).
Ah Chai DurianLocation: 58 Upper Changi Road (Boston Bakery)
Contact: 81379828Ah Chai taking a big sniff of a durian. Sniffing (as well as knocking and shaking) the durian is one of the key ways to test the quality. Although Ah Chai may look a little rough around the edges, he is definitely a very humble and honest seller. He will throw the durian away with contempt if he finds that it doesn't meet an appropriate standard. It is this meticulous honesty that has led to him having devoted customers, who return to his small stall year after year.
During evenings and weekends Ah Chai's stall is extremely busy. Once you have selected the durians that you want, they will be placed into a cart, and then will join a queue, waiting to be opened and packed - During busy periods, this can take 10-15 minutes.
Ah Chai's right hand man carefully prying the succulent flesh out of the husk.
The biggest problem with durians is there are many names for the
same species.
Black Pearl, for example, can also be known as 'tai yuan' (this is what Ah Chai refers to it as). In fact, tai yuan was the original name for this durian - It was only after many years that it adopted the more boutique name of black pearl. Ah Chai only had a handful of black pearl on this particular occasion, but I was suitably impressed with the quality.
Price: $8.00/kg. 8/10 The technical term for the next durian I sampled is
Ang Ba Kia ('little red fella'). However, this is one of those many durians that is just lumped into the category of 'red meat' durian - Even though the flesh isn't really that red. Ang ba kia is a parent cultivator of D13 (which seems to be becoming more popular in Singapore). As you would imagine, the flavours are quite similar to D13. This is a predominantly sweet durian with medium sized seeds.
Price: $6.00/kg. 7/10*Note - Thanks to Tommy (aka Prickly Sensations) for his valuable input.Conclusion - Ah Chai definitely ranks as one of the best durian sellers in Singapore, he is honest and provides great quality durians to his customers. He doesn't have the 'celebrity' status that other durian sellers have in Singapore...Yet. At the moment, he has more of a cult following, especially amongst those living in the Bedok area.
