A pomegranate looks harder to deal with than it is. Score the skin in quarters along the ridges, not through the flesh, then break it apart in a bowl of water — the white pith floats, the arils sink, and you're not left scrubbing juice stains off the counter. That's the one trick that gets people to buy pomegranate a second time instead of leaving it in the fruit bowl until it goes soft.
What you're actually buying in Malaysia
Most wet markets and supermarkets here sell whole imported pomegranates, usually from Iran, Turkey, or India depending on the season, priced by the piece rather than by weight. A few larger supermarkets now stock pre-packed arils in small tubs — more expensive per gram, but zero deseeding effort, which matters if you're buying for a hampers or fruit-tray order rather than home eating.
A ripe one feels heavy for its size and the skin looks slightly flattened at the edges rather than perfectly round. That's a sign the arils inside are packed tight, not dried out.
Pairing it with dates
Pomegranate and dates end up in the same fruit hampers for a practical reason: dates keep for weeks at room temperature while pomegranate needs using within days of cutting, so dates carry the hamper's shelf life and pomegranate carries the colour. Datessupplier's dates range is sold by grade and origin the same way a good pomegranate should be — by what it actually is, not a vague "premium" label. More pairing ideas are in the healthy food section.