A Swanky New Durian Shop Opens in the East Bay

At first glance, the newest trendy-looking store in Richmond’s Pacific East Mall seems like it might be a sleek, high-end boba shop or purveyor of fancy Asian pastries. It’s got bright, colorful signage and an Instagram-friendly selfie spot: a pale-green sofa with durian-shaped throw pillows, positioned next to a lush faux-durian tree, underneath which sits a teddy bear assembled out of spiky balls that look exactly like freshly picked durians.

And the giant, larger-than-life plastic mascot sitting just inside the entrance with a crown on top of his head? Definitely some kind of Boy Durian King, his whole body encased in the spiky shell of Southeast Asia’s King of Fruits.

In case it isn’t already clear: JQ&B Liu Shang Pin is an entire store specializing in durian.

In fact, the only products it sells are whole Malaysian durians, available in about 10 different varieties.

Open since Oct. 4, Liu Shang Pin is the swankiest durian shop I’ve ever seen. It’s also the only one of its kind in the Bay Area that I’m aware of — selling durian but no other kinds of tropical fruit, and not even any durian drinks or desserts. Instead, the shop’s entire inventory is visible in four carefully ventilated and temperature-controlled freezer cases, where customers can find dozens of the famously pungent fruits, each specimen wrapped in shiny gold foil, looking every bit like the luxury food items they are.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the durians at Liu Shang Pin aren’t cheap. Prices range from $16.99 a pound at the low end to a whopping $23.99 a pound for the super-trendy Black Thorn variety, with each spiky-shelled fruit weighing in at four to five pounds. (The Musang King, probably Malaysia’s most famous and popular durian variety, rings up at $17.99 a pound.) In some cases, that means you’re paying more than $100 for a single durian — an expense too hard to swallow even for this durian lover (who, unfortunately, lives in a household of non-durian-eaters). Meanwhile, on the same day as my visit, the 99 Ranch supermarket just down the hall was selling Thai durians for only $11.99 a pound.

Of course, 99 Ranch doesn’t sell whole Black Thorns or Musang Kings, to say nothing of the other more obscure varietals sold at Liu Shang Pin. And many supermarkets in the U.S. only sell durians that have been picked long before they’re ripe, mainly because the fruit’s shelf life is so short. In those cases, the durian will never fully achieve the rich pungency, sweetness and custardy texture that it’s known for.

The owners of Liu Shang Pin, on the other hand, say they’re selling mature durians that are picked and flash-frozen when they’re fully ripe. Once you bring the durian home, you just need to let it sit at room temperature for about five hours before cracking it open.

Could durian emerge as the Bay Area’s hottest new luxury food? While the fruit has always been held in the highest esteem by our region’s Southeast Asian communities, conventional wisdom has generally held that it’s just too “stinky” to attain mainstream popularity in the U.S. What Liu Shang Pin seems to be going for, though, is the connoisseurs’ market — folks for whom a $100 durian might seem like a bargain if it saves you from having to buy a plane ticket to Malaysia.

JQ&B Liu Shang Pi is open daily inside the Pacific East Mall (3288 Pierce St.) in Richmond.