ABOUT US

HISTORY

Since the 1950s, Lim Hock Lai worked along with his dad in a durian farm in Karak, Pahang, Malaysia. As education in those days was a luxury, he spent most of his days in the farm awaiting the harvest season under the huge canopy from the aged trees, he and his friends will gather in groups to play with marbles and hopscotches to spend their days.

Over the years, Hock Lai was able to differentiate the different breed of durians by just the appearance of it. There were multiple small-dark spots on his wrinkled skin, which was evident he stood outdoors most of the time.

Who We Are

For years, they have been supplying fresh durians up to 100,000kg annually from their farm to Singapore and overseas vendors. Some might know, the descendant of Hock Lai is currently holding up the family’s business in the heartland district of Bukit Panjang.

Passing down the baton, Mr Say Lai (a.k.a Ah Lai) stand strong on the grounds of Bukit Panjang in continuation of the family’s tradition.

It was certainly a difficult year for Ah Lai, as the covid restrictions not only confined his regulars to their homes, it also meant that he had to spend his New Year, which often he most looked forward to, away from his hometown. “I open my shop on the first day of Chinese New Year, the whole street was very quiet. I had to call up a few of my regulars to tell them I am selling durian, if not my durian cannot sell then lose money. In Singapore also dont have relatives to visit, might as well open my stall.”

PRESENT

A recent follow-up with the kind-hearted descendants revealed that they will be moving their set-up to Bedok this year. This is due to dine-in restrictions in their previous location – Mei Ling Market. When probed the reason for allowing dine-in to happen, they shared that they would like to re-enact the old times [the days when they were in Malaysia Farm] of interacting with the customers who visits their stall and dining in, instead of simply just “taking-away”, which made them felt that hospitality was lacking in the business. “We hope the residents in the area will like us, we are just minutes away by foot from the local landmark - Bedok 85 Market.” At the end of our exchange, we concluded that this year, we could either savour their best fruits in their stall, or have it at the comfort of our own homes via their Durian Delivery Service.