Shan Cheng Durian Penang 山城果皇 — Local services in George Town

My friend recommended this store to me when I said that I'm going to Penang. We came at the right time as it's durian season. Although there are many stores in Georgetown, many of which is walking distance from where we stayed, I decided to go to Shan Cheng for my first encounter with the King of fruits.

Don't get me wrong, being a Singaporean at some point would have tasted durians but I'm not much of a durian person. At one period of my life I hated it due to the aftertaste that lingers in my mouth for hours.

As my fiancée loves durian, I decided to give myself another chance to understand why so many simply love the fruit. Since I'm "new" best to go to the source to ensure I'm getting the real mcCoy. All durians look the same to me : )

My friend suggested driving there as it's quite a distance from Georgetown. Well.. I'm lazy and to rent a car for this seems excessive. Furthermore the hotel we stayed at only has street parking. So we Grab there. No problem from our hotel but for the return trip it took a while to get hold of a vehicle. So be warn if you decided on this approach.

Before the trip I corresponded with Shan Cheng via their WhatsApp. Responds were prompt and friendly. They offered to reserve specific durians for me so that I will not be disappointed as it's first-come-first-serve. They also sent the price list and it goes by weight. We reserved Red Prawn, Musang, and Black torns. These seems to be premium durians and sweetness from Red Prawn (sweetest) to Black torns (a hint of bitterness).

When we arrived and told them that we had a reservation, they asked for the name and took "our" basket with our reserved fruit. They had the weight written and proceed to show us to our table. We were given each a bottle of water and each a pair of disposable gloves. When our durians arrived we started our feast. No fuss enjoying the fruit. When you are done with the exposed fruit, you may bring the shell back for them to crack open the other portions of the fruit. The store is cool by electric fans so in the afternoon it can get a bit toasty.

We spent about an hour there and we waited another 15-20 mins for our Grab. It was quite nerve wracking when no driver pick-up our hailing. But fortunately one did. The trips cost us about RM30+ each way...

Nice environment although price per kg is a wee pricey. Understandably, it’s weekend and what the heck if you are getting good fresh durians right? Unfortunately they don’t necessary give you good durians though. My Red Prawn at Ram38 per kg. came with thick husk and small and few pau. Felt kinda shortchange. Thought it was a busy day and they were running short of durians. So, I came early at 10.15 am the next day, Green Dragon and Lin Feng Jiao were just perfect at RM38 per kg. We thought a Black Thorn at Ram90 per kg would be the icing in the cake. It weight in at RM121 with only four small pau. That’s RM30 each. Left : the Red Prawn thick husk Middle : Black Thorn ( too much hype about it) Right: Green Dragon ( if you like bitter with wine taste. Similar to XO. This is it) . Lin Feng Jiao is sweet bitter yummy too but minus the wine taste. These two are good value at RM38 per kg.

My takeaway? Customers should get what they are paying for with quality durians especially direct from the orchard. At cheaper price in KL, I get better quality finger-deep creamy stick-to-your-tongue well rounded full durians. Those who patronise orchards are usually durian connoisseur and know their durians.

The compensation? Lovely drive to the hills of Balik pulau , albeit the traffic congestion at the town area. If not for that, I’ll eat my durians in my regular quality...

I’m from Singapore and it’s my first time eating durian at a farm. Generally enjoyable experience, staff were friendly and also honest (they told us when one of our orders was not good after opening it, and asked us to choose another type). Staff also gave tips on the order to eat the durians that we ordered (black thorn first, then Ling Feng jiao then green skin, in increasing order of bitterness).

Remember to reserve before going down because they really did have a lot of types sold out - lucky we reserved some.

The main downside was the number of houseflies, which got quite disruptive, especially when the other big group finished, and my table was the only group left, so the flies centered on our table.

In addition, the farm doesn’t seem to have durians of the small seed variety. But for the price paid, still very value for money...