By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, Nov 3: ‘Beli langsat susu, beli langsat padi!’—these were the words said by a roadside vendor standing by an old Proton Iswara Aeroback at a makeshift stall, making passersby turn their direction towards him.
When passersby approach him, the charming vendor, with a friendly smile, then asks them whether they want to buy locally grown langsat fruit.
When interviewed by DayakDaily, the 61-year-old Jee Ik Choon, a Chinese-Iban man, said that rural folk who grew local langsat liked to call and describe the creamy-coloured fruit as ‘langsat susu’ or ‘langsat padi’ despite it being the same fruit.
However, when pushed further about why he called it ‘langsat susu’ or ‘langsat padi’, Jee explained the fruit’s skin resembles creamy evaporated milk and a smaller paddy grain. He also shared an old description used by rural folk that the fruit’s oval shape resembled a woman’s breast.
With the description unfolding, Jee, who retired from his self-employed construction job, said in the old days and even now, young women in rural areas often described their beauty and skin tone to the langsat.
“For us fruit vendors, the catchy call is to differentiate our local langsat fruit from the Indonesia-grown variety known as ‘langsat Indon’.”
According to him, Indonesian-grown langsat is rounder and sweeter, describing it as ‘manis mati’, which translates to ‘dead sweet’.
Jee, who has been selling a variety of local fruits since he was 12 years old, said the taste of Indonesian langsat is sweeter than the local variety.
He chalked it up to the possibility that the fruit could have been grown on fertile soil in well-maintained orchards, which is not the case for Sarawak as the local versions were sourer.
Jee added that he is selling local langsat as it is in season now, which means the fruit will be plentiful for him to make extra income. — DayakDaily
