A DURIAN buffet opened in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday to a sold-out crowd, drawn by the allure of the musang king.

The musang king durian festival brought an inkling of Malaysian culture to the upper crust of Melbourne at Docklands by the waterfront on Victoria Harbour Esplanade.

For Malaysians and other Southeast Asians living here, it was a treat to be able to enjoy the quality whole-fruit durians air-flown by Duria Australia from its home base in Kamunting, Taiping.

Australians familiar with the king of fruits were seen eating with abandon, albeit with gloved fingers.

For the less initiated and within nose-range, there was a mixture of puzzlement, intrigue and obnoxious rebuff of the pungent fruit.

“It has been a long time since we had such a feast,” said Kenry Tan, a retired Indonesian from Medan, as he and his wife, Dyana, tucked into the all-you-can-eat offer on the table.

Fresh musang king and D24 were not the only things on offer. There was gelato and mochi for those with a sweet tooth, and savoury fares ranging from pancakes and spring rolls to fireballs and iceballs, and fresh coconut juice to wash it all down.

TV broadcast engineer James Manolios and his friends, boarding school house master Scott Everard and IT consultant Matt Oram, were indulging as “the locals” would with their fingers, while recalling their visits to Jalan Alor in Kuala Lumpur, Thailand and Singapore.

“I use to hate it,” Manolios, 29, confessed.

“I was the last among my group of friends (to enjoy eating durian).

“But once I tried it…” he said.

Everard, 33, and IT consultant Oram, 27, had their first whiff of durian cooked in pancakes sold at Melbourne Asian suburb Box Hill.

Next to them, Russian software programmer Roman Khafizianov, 26, and his cinematographer wife, Anastasia, 24, were starting their sons, Matthew, 4, and Martin, 2, young.

The itinerant family, working as they travel, first caught the durian bug in Thailand three years ago. But it took Anastasia a year later in Bali before she could be persuaded to taste it. Now, they cannot get enough of it.

“In Singapore,” said Khafizianov, from where they had arrived two weeks ago, “we found ourselves living in an area full of durian (stalls). We just had to eat every day”.

“I don’t care how much they cost. I just have to have it.”

Machinist Hayden Richardson, 55, had his first taste of durian in pancakes, gelato and other durian products, that was until his partner, Alkie, from Hong Kong, introduced him to the real thing.

Outside the Duria enclosure, three other events were going on within nose-whiff of the musang king, among them, staff being hosted by their employer to a year-end party.

As those in the group milled about, they could not but catch whiffs of durian in the air. 

“Yes, I can smell something unusual,” said Stephanie Lountzis, “what is it?”

“Durian?” was her puzzled reaction when told. “What is durian?”

Next to Lountzis, Mikkayla Mossop, 28, explained: “Durian could be the next super fruit.”

“In Africa and Third World countries… its rich in protein and such.”

A survey of about 30 people at the event found that only eight described the smell as objectionable. But only a few ventured to give durian a taste. 

Mossop fell short when she put seed to palate, for all her excitement about the potential of the fruit. It took some coaxing to get Lountzis to try a pinch.

“It’s not that bad,” she said, taking another pinch.

“Everybody enjoyed themselves,” said Duria Australia chief executive officer Adam Ng of the opening day of his two-day buffet festival.

Two more sessions of the durian buffet will be held today. The first of the maximum 200-ticket sessions (6pm-7.30pm) has sold out but there are limited seats available for the second session from 8pm to 9.30pm. – December 17, 2017.