There's always fruit here, but this time of year seems particularly bountiful.

We've mentioned Indah's mango-extravaganza a couple of times. Their backyard mango tree chose this year to really go bananas (as it were).

Then the other day we were given some mangosteen:


And then along came the gift of a durian. And not just any old durian, but a coveted Black Thorn Durian.

Now, we love durian. We simply cannot understand people who complain about the taste or the aroma. As far as we're concerned, durian smells appetizing, and tastes delicious. Full stop.

But in all our many years of eating durian (and we've been based in this part of the world for well nigh 12 years now), we have never actually tackled one ourselves... Durian has always come to us in ready-to-eat form. Someone else has already done the hard work.

But this durian was entire. Resplendent in all its thorny glory. (Duri means thorn in Malay/Indonesian, so a durian is literally a thorny thing, just as a rambutan is a hairy thing.)

"OK," I said to the Other Tern, "I'll make breakfast; you figure out how to break into a durian."

So he found some handy instructions.

What you absolutely can't do without in this operation is a sharp and beefy knife, and some sort of towel or cloth (to protect your hands from the spikes). But we did get a bit nervous when the instructions mentioned an optional screwdriver and hammer...

I was most impressed at my partner's rapidly gained expertise. There he was, shaking our durian to see if it rattled (it didn't, which is apparently good), and checking the feel of the stem, and identifying the "star", and talking knowledgeably about "chambers" -- as though he'd been operating on durians all his life.




At the end of the cutting-and-eating procedure, the oven gloves had to go straight in the wash, and the remnants straight in the bin, but that glorious flavour lingered delectably on our tongues for quite a while.

Then, a couple of days later, we were given some dabai, a Sarawakian delicacy:


Same story. We'd eaten them, and enjoyed them (dabai fried rice is lovely). But we'd never prepared them.

And again, a quick excursion on the web threw up some instructions -- although you had to be very firm with Google, and insist that you did indeed mean DABAI:


This is another delicious thing, and quite unique. Dabai have a soft, buttery texture, and a nutty kind of taste. And they're not cheap, so it was a generous gift, as well as a sumptuous addition to today's breakfast.

All up, a fruitful few days, giving us good eating, and new skills!