Monday, July 14, 2008

Two-six And Twenty-six A Kilo for Musang King

After a tiring day exploring Colmar Tropicale, Japanese Tea Garden, Botanical Garden and Rabbit Farm at Berjaya Hills Resort, I decided to treat my family with durian that night.
So, after Isyak I went to look for a durian hawker at a small town of Bukit Tinggi, about 1.5km from our apartment.
After spotting one of the stall which was still opened then, I approached the durian seller.
Upon seeing me, he said : " Ini durian baik, Musang King.. harga murah sahaja.. dua enam satu kilo !!! " (This durian is good, Musang King..the price is cheap, two six only (RM2.60/kilo).
On hearing that, at the back of my mind I was thinking that the durian must be cheap since I saw a heap of durian skin at the back of the stall. The durian season is just round the corner, I thought.
So I just selected one by one of the Musang King durian and the seller pierced through the torny fruit one by one, peeping into its flesh inside. After selected about 9 pieces of durian, the seller weighed all of them and it came out about 14.5 kg. I thought the cost would be just about 14.5 kg x 2.60 = RM 37.70...quite reasonable. Alas.. to my shock, the seller told me that the cost was RM377.00 !!!! I quickly said that, I heard him saying TWO SIX which I had literally translated it to RM2.60 per kilo but what he meant was TWENTY-SIX i.e. RM 26.00 a kilo !!!
I told the hawker politely that I didn't have much money and can he reduced the quantity to half.. After recalculating again a few times, "Never mind, I give you RM19.00/kilo.. if you were to buy it else where, it is to cost you RM30.00/kilo" he said while weighing the durians again. He said that the cost now is RM275.00 or just RM270.00 ....

Delicious and Exotic Musang King Durian

Well, I have never bought or heard such a durian before in my life although my parents used to own a durian orchard when I was small.
After a discussion with my sons, I decided to pay for the amount which was discounted by RM107.00 . I brought the durians home to the apartment..
After reaching the apartment, I asked my family members to guess how much was the cost of the durian.. the nearest answer was RM60.00 . They were shocked when I told them the durians were Musang King and I had paid RM270.00 for about nine pieces of them..
Without hesitation, I opened the king of fruits, one by one and Alhamdulillah, the price did all the sayings.. The fruits were so tasty and delicious and after everybody was full, we peeled open the rest to keep it for tomorrow morning breakfast. We had our kuah durian (durian gravy) cooked with milk and eat it with bread for breakfast the next morning... What a delicious Musang King durians..
So, the moral of the story is never assume what you have heard without asking what the actual meaning was... I was lucky as it was just a durian; what would happen if the item transacted is a house or something that we could not afford ???