Restaurant: 101 Durian – Famous King of Durian Stand
Cuisine: Fruit
Last visited: April 25, 2010
Location: Chinatown, Singapore
Address: Ground floor of Chinatown Complex Food Centre (Hawker Centre)
335 Smith Street, Chinatown Complex
Take the MRT to Chinatown or Outram Park stations.
Price Range: $5 SGD – about $3.75 CAD
1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!
Durian: 6 (I do NOT like Durian, but this one was amazing)
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:
- Most popular durian stand in Singapore
- Famous durian stand
- Popular for tourists and locals
- Serves only durian (sometimes mangosteen)
- Specialty: Mountain Cat Durian
- Fresh, freshly cut
- Imported daily
- Take-away
- Open late (around 10pm)
**Recommendations: Mountain Cat Durian
First off, I do not like durian. I’ve tried it a few occasions when it’s in season and I’m still not a fan. It is something I hope I can appreciate with age… but I haven’t acquired those taste buds yet.
The smell is rancid and it smells like 10 year old garbage. Every time I come near it I have to mask myself… yes I know, it’s immature. But seriously, imagine walking by a landfill – you’d do the same. On the other hand, people that enjoy the fruit consider this smell aromatic… I have yet to become one of these people.
Durian is popularly known in Asia as “the King of fruits”. I’d like to believe it’s because of its pointy thorns that make it resemble a king’s crown, but I really don’t think that’s the reason why. I mean it can’t be because it’s superior in taste, or could it? Well I wouldn’t have believed in its capabilities to “wow” me so quickly, but a bite of durian from this famous stand in Singapore made me a “I only like durian in Singapore” fan.
On the table:
101 Durian is a famous durian stand in Singapore and it’s known for the type of durian they sell – The Mountain Cat Durian. It’s called “Mau Shan Wong” which is translated to “Cat Mountain King”.
The lady tosses the durian and by doing that she can tell if it’s ripe enough to cut and serve. She’s wearing gloves… so no blood bath.
The other staff/family member cuts and packages the durian. You can either eat it at one of their small tables and stools in the front (outside), or you can take it home.
They also have a small mangosteen stand nearby, but it’s not their main focus nor is it always there. I bought a bag and they were also quite sweet. These are one of my favourite fruits, but too bad they’re about $7/lbs in Vancouver.
**Mountain Cat Durian – 6/6
- $10 SGD – about $6CAD
- This type of durian is known to have a small seed. It’s also known to be the sweetest variety of durian.
- I kid you not that this is the best durian I have ever tried and I actually really liked it. It’s a super fatty fruit and so indulgent.
- It still smells like a**, but it was delicious!! You get over the smell fast when it tastes this good and it really does become “aromatic”.
- It tastes like very creamy and velvety rich cake batter. It was so buttery, rich and thick like custard.
- It was like eating stringy fiberous melted ice cream. So pungent, so sweet and so delicious. I know my description sounds kind of gross, but it wasn’t.
- For durian this is a 6/6, but on a wider scale of fruit it was a 4/6 for me.
- Now I really won’t be able to enjoy another durian unless it’s from 101 Durian. I tried it again in Vancouver to see if my taste buds had “matured” yet… and nope… I still don’t like it at home.
- I think this Mountain Cat Durian was actually imported from Malaysia and I kind of regret not trying one while in Malaysia.
At my last visit, I managed to smuggled durian flesh packed in styrofoam container (your last photo) but wrapped tightly with saran wrapper to seal off the smell, through the hotel lobby and under the nose of the security. 😀 They are all imported from Malaysia and Thailand. I paid way more than those prices in your photos. Perhaps because I bought them from a supermarket at Orchard Road, Costcold or Coldstore?!
Goodwood hotel’s bakery sells Durian mousse cakes and puffs. I discovered it accidentally because my hotel was next door.
What! The mangosteens cost only $7 for 1.5 kgs I would have bought all of them. Do you know that they charge you an arm and a leg here in Vancouver!
EnbM – of course I know they charge an arm and a leg for mangosteens here!! It makes me want to cry because it’s one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE fruits!! I LOVE THOSE!! I DID buy a whole bag and ate them ALL for breakfast!! They’re like $5.99/lb here! However T&T now offers frozen ones (not as good though) for $1.99 for 5! 🙂
Wow you’re good!! You got durian past security?!? Awesome!! I had to do the same but I just made a run for it lol. Do you like durian from Thailand or Malaysia better? I’m still a durian rookie 🙂
T&T only sell Thai Montong durians, both fresh and frozen. Years ago they sold the frozen ones for $0.68 a pound, I bought some to beat up the durian pulps with ice cream. I enjoyed the part sneaking past the hotel security more then the fruit itself. 😀
EnbM – Nope! T&T sells frozen rambutan AND Mangosteen :))) Trust me! Go to their freezer isle… I bought 6 bags of frozen mangosteen from the Richmond location. The rambutan has been available for the last 2 years at least and the mangosteen is just this last month or so. But it’s not as good of course… but it’s frozen so that’s a bit given.
Thanks for the headups, Mijune. I’ll definite make a trip there soon.
No problem! My job is to look out for those that LOVE food like you do 🙂
Dear Mijune,
We are processors of quality vacumm pack frozen Moa Shan Wang approved by the Ministry of Agriculture Malaysia.
I would be grateful if you are able to refer me to importers who are interested in our product. We not only do Durians but also fruits of Malaysia.
Looking forward to your assistance ,
Best Regards,
Wilson Lim
Just a bit of correction. That stall in Chinatown is not the “most popular” in Singapore. There are tons of other stalls along Geylang that are more popular. It just happens that they are they only main durian stall in Chinatown area.
Also they only sell 2 varieties of durian, the Mao Shan Wang and the “kampong” or village durian, other stalls in Geylang have a variety of durian names that can make anyone dizzy.
Note: I do buy durians from them and I am not a durian seller
I went to Chin Yong Fruits Trading @ 77 Sim Avenue on 3 Jan 2013. I was persuaded to buy from the best @ S$30/kg after stall guaranteed quality. He chose, weighed & opened one for me – S$80. The open portion (with about 6 seeds) looked good so I let him pack. But to my disappointment, the rest of the durian was unripe. I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THE STALL AGAIN!!!
Beware.. They gave me fake maoshanwang the last time I was there, for 15SGD per kilo. The maoshanwang is definitely fake because its all mushy and not yellowish with small seeds like it should be.