Tan Kim Hock Durian Candy - $1.90

Some shop in Yong Peng, Johor Darul Takzim, Malaysia.

You’re gonna get a kick outta this post… Durian Candy! From a shop I normally visit to get Otak-Otak (I’ll post about that some time later) in Yong Peng, Johor. It’s about 125 miles from home, but whenever I go to Singapore I’d stop by Yong Peng for some otak-otak on my way home.

At $1.90 a pack with probably 20-25 pieces inside, it’s pretty expensive by Malaysian standards. This is also not the best durian candy I’ve tried. I’m no fan of durian but I’d at least like durian flavoured products to taste a bit like actual durian.  So no, this candy doesn’t have a strong flavour, doesn’t leave you smelling like durian after, there’s just nothing outstanding about this.

So in an effort to make this post worthwhile I’ll add some more pics from the night BEFORE I bought the durian candy. Stayed a night in Johor Bahru for the fun of it and bought the following for dinner: nasi lemak, keropok ikan (fish crackers), A Capricciosa pizza slice from Monty’s, and otak-otak.

You should know about nasi lemak by now, except this is the other way you find it; in a wrapped triangle. Banana leaf inlay and paper under that, wrapped into a little triangle, usually no more than 1-2 ringgit depending on size. This one I paid RM1.50 for, so $0.50 cents. But notice the serving is not exactly a full meal by your standards.

Nor mine of course, hence the Capricciosa pizza slice. I’m not gonna say much except that it’s a whole lotta bread and not enough toppings, I remembered it being much much better the last time I had this over 1.5 years ago, but that was the morning after some heavy drinking so maybe that’s why.

For sides I also got some keropok ikan or fish crackers, deep fried of course. Sorry for the lousy pics I was half high on a cheap bottle of Highland Park 12 year old scotch, and also starving so that’s the only pic of the keropok I got.

Anyways, last thing I got was some otak-otak. That’s basically blended fish and I’m assuming some spices cos it’s usually very slightly spicy. The typical way of serving it as you can see is to wrap it in between 2 banana leaf folds stapled on ends and grilled over charcoal fire. If I’m not wrong this is an authentic Malaysian dish, a Peranakan invention from north Malaysia. I think. It’s good shit. Fun fact: otak means “brain” in Malay, and in the language the same word said twice with a dash usually means plural…. So otak-otak would mean brains.

The end.