Durian Fruit & Dinner Run w/Video – Bali Indonesia

It’s pretty well become a daily ritual for us as we’ve been living in Bali Indonesia, to take the kids for a refreshing swim toward the late afternoon/early evening, and then right after we get back to the apartment, Mama and I head out on the scooter and round up our dinner for that night. This is quite easily my favorite part of our day, as I absolutely love to feel the tropical breeze in my face as the scooter reaches decent speeds.

Some nights we get takeout food right here from our own neighborhood, of which there are numerous food sellers with their food carts or small dining areas that are setup as a business right in front of their living space. I love these rides because when staying just in the local neighborhood and avoiding the larger, main artery streets, we don’t need to bother with the helmets, and that allows me to soak up the feeling of the ride even more. Also, for such a bargain price, regardless of where, or even how many different places we stop to get prepared food or even just ingredients for Mama to cook, we end up coming back to the apartment with a variety of what everybody wants to eat for that night, and have spent what amounts to rarely ever be over ten United States dollars, and usually it’s even less than that, if your counting just dinner alone. Quite a bargain to feed four people. While we’re out however, we also stop for any supplies that we may need as well, which always makes me happy, because more places to stop means a longer time being out riding, which is one of my favorite parts about living here in our neighborhood in Bali.

Occasionally we splurge a little, and grab the helmets and head out of our neighborhood, venturing a few kilometers away from the apartment, using the main artery streets, and seeking out new and potentially delicious places to eat. These are the times that I try to remember to bring the camera along and see if I can get any interesting and usable footage of our ride and exploration. Which is exactly what I did that led to this video.

One of Mama’s girls had a craving for a meal from a place here called HokBen, which appeared to me to be similar to a Japanese or Chinese type fast food place back home in the states. Of course, anytime that you visit a chain restaurant here in Bali, it is always more expensive than your local, neighborhood food sellers, which is why I call these rare nights a splurge. I expected that we would just get in there and pick up Alma’s dinner and then head out, but that’s when I got a look at the food and the menu, and decided that I just had to try something. I had my eye on these “chicken egg rolls” as they were called, although they didn’t look like a normal egg roll that I’m used to in the picture. They weren’t cheap, especially by Indonesian rupiah standards, at just over 30,000 rupiah for one order that didn’t include very many of them, but to my surprise after we got back to our apartment and I tried one of the little, bad boys, they were absolutely delicious. It was nearly pure, tasty chicken meat in each bite, combined with what looked like a small piece of egg, with a soft outside that was a bit greasy, which was fine with me because I’m not exactly known for my healthy eating anyway, and I love some substance to my food, albeit as picky as I am in general. I could have eaten at least three orders of these things, but at least now I know that if/when another splurge permits itself in the future, this is a great option to consider.

Alma’s dinner from HokBen was about 50,000 rupiah, and was a complete meal with rice and a vegetable added to make for fair size plate of food. Alma, being the older of Mama’s two girls is very demanding and particular about the foods we get for her, and she is very lucky that we can do these occasional splurges. I think that she’s just at an age where she’s in some sort of phase that hopefully a little future discipline will resolve this, which will begin as soon as we’re all in The United States together. Not that I’m at all in any kind of hurry to leave Bali. In fact, living here for another six months to a year is a wish of mine, health and finances permitting.

Heading out of the parking lot at HokBen, and just down that same busy street, we quickly noticed a truck parked on the side that was selling durian fruit. Before I came to Indonesia, I had no idea what a durian fruit even was, but after meeting Mama and the girls, I’ve come to learn quite well. They completely love this fruit, and the girls especially, as see it as a major treat if we ever buy one for them to eat with Mama. It’s quite fascinating really. These girls are easily as excited to receive a durian fruit as they would be to receive a new squishy or other toy, or maybe a new electronic device. There is something very magical about this fruit in that sense. On a side note, I must warn you that these things are spiky son’s of bitches, heavy too, and probably spiky enough to injure yourself if you were really clumsy about handling one of them.

As for myself, I tried the fruit, but being the picky eater that I am especially, I don’t like it at all. I can also tell you that the smell of one of these fruits is so very strong, that after breaking one open to eat, the entire apartment smells like a durian for the next twenty-four hours, at least. It’s not really a bad smell, just immensely potent, which is really incredible to observe.

As for this particular night, we actually got the best deal on a durian that we’ve been able to find yet, during our time in Bali. These suckers aren’t cheap, with the average price for one that is even a bit on the smaller side than the median size, can range in the 70,000 rupiah territory, and even go well up over 100,000 rupiah. This time, we parked the scooter a few meters away from the seller, and I stayed on while Mama went by herself to negotiate for a durian. When I’m around in any situation, we take the risk of being quoted the “tourist price” for higher end items like this. Mama, while not being the world’s greatest negotiator by any means, actually did a great job and got us the durian that I show you in this video along with a jack fruit, all for just 35,000 rupiah. I was very happy to have acquired a durian on this night, because I knew that it would put such a big smile of the kids faces when we got back to the apartment, and that’s a big bonus for me. I’ve quickly grown to love those two girls.

All in all, this was another really great evening ride after a swim, here in Bali Indonesia. As always, I hope you got something good to take away from this video and accompanying blog post. Maybe you even haven’t yet heard of a durian fruit, and now you will have something new to try if you come to Bali. Either way, your comments are always welcome, and your up votes are always appreciated. Thank you again for watching/reading.