Tasty durian ice-cream enticing tourists to orchard in Kedah
BANDAR BAHARU (Kedah): It is smooth, rich, creamy and tastes like the real thing. What more can an ardent durian lover ask for when digging into durian ice-cream?
There is a 71-hectare durian orchard in Sungai Kechil Ilir at Bandar Baharu, about 35 kilometres from Kulim, where the fruits are either sold fresh when they are in season or turned into durian-based products like ice-cream.
The orchard owner is Nictron Agriculture Sdn Bhd, an agricultural products manufacturer.
Taking into consideration the “discerning” taste buds of connoisseurs of the thorny fruit, Nictron Agriculture proprietor Patrick Saw said only the flesh of premium-grade durians was used to make the ice-cream.
He said after his orchard started to attract domestic and foreign visitors a few years ago, he noted a good demand for durian-based products among his customers who were not satisfied eating the fresh fruit alone.
The company ventured into making the ice-cream first before introducing more products like frozen durian; “lempuk”, a type of dessert where the durian is cooked with sugar until it attains a thick consistency; and “serawa”, a type of sweet porridge served as dessert.
“We started with durian icecream as we felt that it would serve as a refreshing dessert in our hot weather but we didn't expect it to be such a big hit,” he told Bernama, adding that the “lempuk” was also popular among the tourists who visited the orchard.
Served to the visitors in small cups under the brand name Aroy (which in the Thai language means tasty), the durian icecream is produced in a factory in Kuala Lumpur, based on a special recipe provided by a Malaysian chef who used to work for a leading hotel in Brunei.
This delicious durian icecream is currently only available at the Sungai Kechil Ilir orchard. Nictron Agriculture also exports it to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
“In China, our ice-cream is selling for RM10 to RM15 per 100ml tub,” said Saw, adding that the company has exported a total of 26 tonnes of ice-cream between January and early December this year.
About 30 types of durian species are grown in his orchard, with the two main harvest seasons being from February to April and August to December.
This year alone, the orchard had attracted more than 5,000 local and foreign tourists.
“Sometimes, the demand for durians is so overwhelming that we have to source for fruits at nearby orchards or buy them from the kampung folks,” said Saw.
He said it was on account of the increasing number of people stopping by the orchard to feast on its durians that the company decided to diversify into durianbased products.
“Besides ice-cream, we also ventured to produce frozen durian and ‘lempuk' as these are durian-based products that our visitors can take home with them.
“It's not advisable for them to take back fresh durians with them as the fruit is a prohibited item in hotels and aircraft due to its strong odour,” he said.