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I have done some horrifying things in pursuit of deliciousness. Horrifying. I've dug elbow-deep into a fresh, steaming pile of pig guts to hand-harvest intestines for sausage casing. I've toted a freezer bag of squirrel carcasses across multiple state lines, scooped smoked brain from a cow skull into my mouth and had it written into my wedding vows that creepy little jars of fermenting food "projects" would be tolerated, if not joyfully accepted. Who'd have thought I'd be felled by a fruit? Ohhhhh...that smell. It's the stuff of legend, but not hyperbole. Culinary adventurer and Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern has jammed down still-beating frog heart and chicken uterus, yet spat out durian on camera, calling the scent akin to "completely rotten, mushy onions." Travel writer Richard Sterling paints the odor as "pig-s**t, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock." A frequently cited passage from a 1988 Washington Post article quotes Singaporean cook and professed durian addict Wai Ching Lee likening the experience to "eating custard in a sewer." Describing his first encounter with the fruit in 'A Cook's Tour', No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain wrote, "It smelled like you'd buried somebody holding a big wheel of Stilton in his arms, then dug him up a few weeks later." I am a broken, damaged person with a masochistic, food-macho streak, so this all sounded hunky dory to me. Silly, silly me. All it took was a "Hey look, they have durian!" from a pal who'd accompanied me on a shopping trip to Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. My basket was already laden with frozen fish balls, pickled grapes, black vinegar and a clamshell container of one of my favorite snacks: a mixture of sugar, chili oil, peanuts and dried anchovies. Why not stink up the car a little more? Here's why: everyone you hold dear will suddenly despise you. Not only will they sustain collateral olfactory damage from standing within several yards of the vile pod, once you've ingested it, you'll be afflicted with burps so pungent as to roil and rot all air in the room around you. The noxious emanation will not cease for many an hour, and by that time, your loved ones will have located alternate living quarters, possibly in another hemisphere. I'd done my level best to shield the innocent from the effluvia of my task, waiting until my husband had left for work, then gingerly setting the fruit onto the newspaper-covered concrete of the area we optimistically refer to as "the backyard." Our sweet, battle-scarred greyhound Edward trotted out to oversee the goings-on. "Thluck!" The tip of my knife pierced the woody, peaked outer shell more easily than I'd expected and sunk into the creamy flesh with a sudden, sickening ease. With the hull now breached, the first rank wave began to rise. Edward, sniffed, let loose a small whimper and ran inside. I tweeted (because that's what I do), "Verdict: it smells like the fridge of every guy I dated in art school." Responses began flooding in. "Was this the result of a dare?" asked food writer Elizabeth Bastos. Celebrated baker, blogger and cookbook author David Lebovitz recalled, "I made a Durian Cake once and a customer sent a note back to the kitchen, 'How dare you!'" A colleague who works from our Atlanta office noted that he'd caught wind I was exiled to Brooklyn, rather than the office for this particular mission because of, in his words, "the stank." Stink, stank, STUNK. I pried the pod in half, and the stench punched upward, sending me reeling backward onto the concrete and back into the house to let my nose hover above a half-filled cup of black coffee while I examined the petard onto which I'd hoisted myself. It was as if I suddenly entered a world in which only onions, meat and yeast spores grew, decayed and died, taking joy along with them. Would I be a wuss if I abandoned mission now? Yes. How much would it cost if I left all my personal possessions behind and started afresh in a new city? A lot. Back into the fray. Wielding a metal spoon and inhaling as infrequently as I could stand, I loosened the innocuous-looking flesh from the outer husk and plopped it into a bowl. The pulp was soft, moist and wrinkled, roughly the texture of an elderly banana and the pale, sickly hue of a raw, skin-on chicken breast. I pinched off a chunk and stuck it in my mouth. BBBLLLLEEEAAAAAUUUUUURRRRRGGGGGGH! Imagine if elves came in under cover of darkness, opened a White Castle franchise in your mouth, pulled the electricity for about six weeks and then forced you to dine from the Dumpster after cleanup. The rotten meat, yeast and onions evoked by the scent had materialized, metastasized, and now held my tongue prisoner. I considered and rejected the idea of a home amputation, then poured the rest of the coffee over the poor thing while I debated which durian recipe I was going to use. Wait...cook it? Yup. It's not as if I was ever, EVER going to attempt this particular culinary Kilimanjaro again, so I might as well climb to the top and have a good look around. A goodly quantity of the durian consumed on the planet is in the form of frozen desserts, candies and bakery-made pastries, but shockingly enough, my extensive cookbook collection came up snake eyes (which would probably be tastier). Luckily, while the internet doesn't exactly abound with recipes, a few obsessives offered up some that seemed halfway appealing. Instructed by duriansite.com, I gathered together the makings of a durian cake. Pulp of one durian While creaming together the butter and sugar in my stand mixer, I removed the hard seeds from the durian lobes, and then pureed the pulp in my food processor. Then I preheated the oven to 350°F, separated the eggs and beat them into the butter mixture. After that, while pinching my nostrils with one hand, I used the other to pour the durian pulp into the still-whirring stand mixer, then tossed in a pinch of salt for the heck of it. I whipped the remaining egg whites into stiff peaks, folded them into the batter, spread that in a buttered baking dish and shoved the whole mess in the oven. I've been wrong before. Heck, I'm wrong a lot. Exposing the durian to heat and allowing it exposure to innocent air molecules may be the rankest wrong I've perpetrated upon my fellow man. As I contemplated my sins, our dog walker Tony arrived (I'd forgotten to cancel) and sniffed the air with great curiosity. "Hey there! Um, what smells so...so..." I waited with bated, burpy breath to see what adjective he'd land on. "...so putrid?" Good call. We shared a piece of cake when he came back from his errand. Sweet fancy Moses, was it disgusting - easily the foulest thing ever to emerge from my kitchen, and I've made pig head cheese and canned veal tongue in there. Tony chewed contemplatively. "It's not quite as bad as I thought it would be from the smell. If you'd told me it was onion cake, I would have believed you." He's a very polite person. He's also a 21 year old man and would likely eat just about anything you set in front of him. Tony declined the offer of a piece of cake to take home and scuttled away as quickly as he could. I took that as a sign my mission had, mercifully, come to an end and cleaned up the kitchen as best I could, with one exception: the remaining cake and pan were still too hot to handle, so I left them to cool in the oven while I escaped to the comparatively sweet-smelling New York City subway to go to dinner with friends. This was mean of me. My husband had left a perfectly neutral-smelling home and was about to come back to a house of horrors. I slunk in, late and sheepish. "What...happened here?" he asked cautiously. "It smells like something went very wrong - like the edges of the air have been singed." I apologized, profoundly and profusely and spent the rest of the night trying not burp durian all over my beloved. This was not, I'm sad to say, a piece of cake.
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just so you know, the durian you bought is not fresh,it has gone bad,you should try a fresh one
I tried it today for my first time, I was so excited to try it, it tasted like crap mixed with onion and rotten garlic I thought it was supposed to taste heavenly! Btw your Syrian looked like it was over ripe, the flesh was too pale and the spikes shouldn't be so dry and brown.
It's really a love it or hate it affair, but it also depends on the variety. I'm a big white American and I've tried just about every variety of durian. Out of the many varieties I've tried, there are only a few that I really like. I LOVE the Chanee(D123 I believe) variety of Durian found in Perak and a bit of Selengor Malaysia. It is rather round, contains even lobes of dryer than normal flesh, and while the outside is pretty pungent the inside isn't so bad. The texture is closer to ripe mango, albeit a bit dryer than the normal mushy varieties. The taste is akin to caramel and leaves little after stench. I avoid most other Malaysian durian mostly because of the texture. Thai durian has little of the good taste and too much of the bad taste, and the rest of the other countries are pure BLECK to me. Try a good Malaysia durian and you may be in love.
if you think the burps are bad, you should try it with beer. I'll never forget the look of utter terror on the faces of my friends in North Malaysia when I arrived at the table with several pieces of Durian after we had put back a few jugs of Tiger beer. They tried to keep me from ingesting this seemingly inocuous duo with claiims of "it's too heaty" "you might die" and several other utterings, to no avail. I gobbled up 2 pieces when suddenly Mt. Vesuvius erupted from my tummy. Not so much of an eruption, but more of a venting of gasses. I couldn't stop burping for easily an hour and the smell was a bit of raw sewage mixed with fertilizer and topped with stale beer. I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever experienced. The best part was when I belched inside the car instantaneously causing 2 of the other 4 in the car to vomit uncontrollably out of the car windows. I guess their old wive's tales were somewhat close, but ill fate wasn't for the actual eater, but those closest to him :)
I've never been a big fan of durians myself, but at my parents' behest, I tried it, with great trepidation.
I never had a problem with the smell of durians, it's a very distinct and pungent flavour, but nothing you can't get accustomed to, especially if you have lived in Southeast Asia for a number of years.
The taste itself seems even weaker than the smell, and I envision should be much less troublesome than some of the other foods you have mentioned.
But, by far, the worse aspect of this fruit is that you will taste it for hours and hours on end after the initial consumption. Every time you burp, you will taste it again. And no amount of coffee, mints, gum, tooth-brushing will be able to drown it out.
the only thing is it smells like onion but only the hard wiry parts, and the creamy parts taste like vanilla pudding and its quite good, but one has to remove the parts that smell like onion. if you don´t do that then u r screwed but thats because u ate the wrong part.. u dont eat the shell of an orange either...
I love durian and I think it smells really sweet, not unpleasant at all. I've never found it to be foul or offensive. In actuality, your incessant hyperboles offend me. Durian is a fruit that many people in different Asian cultures find to be pleasant and a big luxury. I don't think that you will appreciate it when you approach it as some sort of disgusting challenge to be conquered.
WITH sweetie, WITH your own petard. When Hamlet states- "...For 'tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar..." he refers to having his treacherous friends being caught in their own trap, being blown up with their own bomb,so to speak. (Actually, Shakespeare's use of the word "petar" is a pun inteded to be understood as "fart", which in the case of your misadventures with the durian fruit, might be most appropriate).
You are my least favorite kind of person. You don't come off as smart, educated, or worldly. You come off as someone who thinks they are a lot smarter than they actually are, seeing as how it doesn't take much to google some Shakespeare or even sit in an English 101 class and spit back some of what you hear. If you were really so damn smart you wouldn't feel the need to put others down in a comments section.
Thank you for that Arla. Not a fan of those types either.
I purchased some frozen durian a couple of years ago and, while my brother was visiting, thawed it on the front porch. We could smell it through the plastic wrapper, the plastic box, and the shrink wrap, all the packaging was original. When we opened that damnable package, words cannot adequately describe our reaction–laughter, dismay, exclamations. I have a sensitive nose and couldn't get the fruit itself past to my mouth; however, I dipped a finger in the juice and tasted–it was like soured pineapple. It wasn't GOOD, but it was far from unpleasant. As an adventurous eater, I had been looking forward (in a masochistic sort of way) trying the fruit. I was both pleased that it lived up to its reputation and disappointed that I failed.
I'm the brother who was visiting. That's pretty much how it happened, but he left out that his beloved wife rolled her eyes and said something along the lines of, "not in MY house." I don't have too sensitive a nose, so even the odor wasn't too terrible to me; as Steve says, the flavour of the juice was acceptable–not something I'd want a glass of, but not bad. We may try the fruit, sometime when his wife is away.
I guarantee that if you go on a durian-only diet within two weeks you will have lost more weight than on any other diet, including starvation.
Seriously. Try it. Come back and let us know how it went.
My wife isn't a fan....she didn't even like the ambrosial third durian I bought in San Francisco back in the '80s. But, when we were in Penang, Malaysia in 2002, our hosts took us in their car around the island and we stopped several times to sample durian, then in season. Some were too strong, others very nice – she admits that she actually enjoyed one or two.
Perhaps the most memorably luscious durian we had that trip was at a "durian feast" put on by friends - where we ate it with sticky rice and coconut cream..... Yummy.....but only (for me) if we don't get a "strong" one!
It's not just me (or you), either. We attended another durian feast at an orphanage. Sitting around the table with 6 or 8 little kids, from 6 to 10 years old, all locals. I watched the boy across the table turn up his nose and push back a seed that I couldn't stomach either....and eat happily one from another plate that had come from a different fruit. I asked him about it, and he admitted that he also did not like "strong" durian.
I can only say that I'm very glad I didn't allow the first two (very unfortunate) experiences induce me to cross durian off my "give it a try" list. But don't feel like you have to try durian - the fewer people eating it, the more left for the rest of us!!
:-)
Yes! I made durian ice cream for my international food blog as a Thai desert. So, it was summer and the windows were open, and I cut it open outside and yeah, it smelled bad, but once it was turned into ice cream, it wasn't bad – sugar and cream make anything taste better! I think you have to let go preconceived notions and just go for it. I wouldn't make it again, but if I was lucky enough to travel to an Asian country and was offered durian, I would respectfully dig in.
My 4 yr old loves durian smoothy and hates bananas. he sad bananas STINKY...LMAO
The only way you can improve the taste of The King Of Fruits (The Durian), is to smear on a thick layer of Vegimite or it's cousin, Marmite, let it sit for three days in the sun, and then eat with a side of horseradish.
To me, durian is a great fruit. The strong smell of durian may scare some people but if you set your mind to remember that durian is just a fruit, not a dead fish or something raw that you can't not eat, just try it. The more you try, the more you like it. Once you like it and you will addictive to it. This fruit is not cheap at all that also shows how special this fruit is. Do you know that durian has many health benefits?
See the table below for in depth analysis of nutrients:
Durian fruit (Durio zibethinus),
Nutrition value per 100 g.
(Source: USDA National Nutrient data base) Principle Nutrient Value Percentage of RDA
Energy 147 Kcal 7%
Carbohydrates 27.09 g 21%
Protein 1.47 g 2.5%
Total Fat 5.33 g 20%
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Dietary Fiber 3.8 g 10%
Vitamins
Folates 36 mcg 9%
Niacin 1.074 mg 7%
Pantothenic acid 0.230 mg 4.5%
Pyridoxine 0.316 mg 24%
Riboflavin 0.200 mg 15%
Thiamin 0.374 mg 31%
Vitamin A 44 IU 1.5
Vitamin C 19.7 mg 33%
Electrolytes
Sodium 2 mg 0%
Potassium 436 mg 9.5%
Minerals
Calcium 6 mg 0.6%
Copper 0.207 mg 23%
Iron 0.43 mg 5%
Magnesium 30 mg 7.5%
Manganese 0.325 mg 14%
Phosphorus 39 mg 6%
Zinc 0.28 mg 2.5%
Phyto-nutrients
Carotene-α 6 mcg -
Carotene-ß 23 mcg –
Smells like rotten onions...tastes like rotten garlic. I'm Filipino and have had access to the freshest of durian. Let me tell you...this fruit freezes well...meaning it tastes equally terrible when its defrosted vs. fresh. I have no clue why so many people like this terrible fruit.
Jermey, you are dead wrong, you probably never tasted Durian and are just going by all the folks who did not either and are just bashing it because of its pungent smell, its a typical American thing. Durian is a great fruit and if you can just get the smell out of your mind it tastes awesome.
I am an adventurous eater. I will try just about anything that I can get down. I tried Durian in Bangkok and I couldn't swallow it. I spit it out into my napkin. I couldn't get it down. I was totally baffled that a fruit could does this to me. Normally I am only stumped by some vile entrail dish. Durian was loved by our host, but I just couldn't do it.
Other
I tried one once, "just to try". Yeah, the smell was horrendous when I opened it up, but I took a spoonful to taste anyway. To me, it tasted like vanilla pudding with a hint of almonds. My opinion is that the flavor isn't worth the price you have to pay to taste it (and I'm not talking about the financial price).
I come from the southern part of the Philippines where durian especially the native variety is abundant. I LOVE EVERY BIT OF PULP IN IT!
I come from the southern part of the Philippines where durian is abundant and I LOVE DURIAN, EVERY TEENY WEENY PULP OF IT.
It's a good bubble tea shake flavor.
I find it highly amusing that SE Asians who have eaten the fruit for years warn against eating it indoors. That to me is a warning that something is dreadfully wrong. I have heard of the durian for years. Being from a suburb of Dallas I never had seen one. Then the city I was living in started having them pop up in Asian grocery stores. The first time I saw one I was guarded against the smell. It had no smell at all. I do not know what variety it was or if had been frozen but it was definately a durian. I did not dare buy it of course. Would have livermush from North Carolina any day of the week instead of having first hand experience of this infamous fruit.
Livermush is one of the finest substances known to mankind. I've got some in the fridge right now and I *was* gonna skip breakfast and go right to the office, but now...
I used to live in North Carolina... I miss livermush very much. I don't understand why you can't seem to get it anywhere else.
Another "ZOMG foreigner eat weird stuff!" American article... (yawn). It's not half as gross as painted, the writer just needed to make the article "zing", sort of like how simplist critics overkill their dislike for a movie or a CD. Then again, maybe he/she thinks heavy fat foods like pizza aren't gross, too.
I once rode all the way across the Sultanate of Brunei in a bus packed with durians. It was lunar new years and all the locals had gone out into the jungle to collect fresh, warm, ever so perfectly ripe... stinking... durians. All the overhead luggage racks were packed with hundreds of them. Bags full covered up the floor. Eight hours of hell.
Tried a durian once. It was a fine compliment for Purple Death Wine made by Sapich Bros Winery, Henderson, New Zealand
I had a durian once. It was pretty good, kind of like custardy onions but not as sweet as that sounds. My own sense of smell is really bad though, so while other people were recoiling as it was cut into I was standing there wondering what the big deal was.
P.P.S. It occurs to me that the Thai fruit growers may be using tissue culture to clone their favorite trees, rather than the traditional grafting. I've never taken the time to find out exactly how it's done.....
Earl,
Thank you so very much for that fantastic explanation of the varieties of durian and their relative pungencies (or lack there of)
I have never tried this fruit, but have wanted to. I am now ever MORE excited about trying it, thanks to your insights!
Mom grew up in colonial Malaya, and all my growing up I heard about durian – she LOVED it (and is straight Caucasian).
When she was maybe 60, after more than 45 years since her last durian, I found one in S.F. – $5.00/pound, but I bought it instantly because I knew someone who would reimburse me. She loved every bite, and ate it with both hands. I, on the other hand, wanting desperately to like this paragon of fruits I'd heard about my entire life, kept saying "Is this REALLY what it tastes like....really? This is what you've been talking about?" I managed to get the custard off of two seeds down, but I most definitely did NOT enjoy it.
A couple of months later, I was in The City again and found another durian. Took it to Mom, and watched her do the same thing - this one was WORSE! I gagged at the smell, and almost upchucked the first bite. I could not manage more than a single seed – it was HORRIBLE. "Yes, this isn't as good as it should be – maybe because it was frozen....." said Mom.
Three months later, I bought two of the fruits and took them to a campout with friends (and Mom – who paid for every one I would bring). They were HEAVENLY!! I mean this, and it wasn't just because "third time's the charm"....there were folks there who had NEVER eaten durian, and lots of them like it, and several asked for seconds. The fermented onion/kerosene odor/flavors were (almost) absent, and the fruity/flowery aromas and taste were completely dominant. A WONDERFUL experience.....that made me intensely curious.
What I found was that (at that time) there was no way known to graft durian trees. Every single one was a seedling. It's well known in Botany that fruit trees grown from seed aren't "true" – that is, they do not resemble their parent that dropped the seed. Plant Golden Delicious apple seeds and you have NO IDEA what sort of apples will result, and most of them won't be worth eating. So that explains the variability in individual fruits. Mom could eat all of them (says the armchair psychologist) because of her childhood associations and the fact that she already LIKED durian. I've eaten apples that weren't very good, and could easily have been rejected by someone unfamiliar with apples – I know that's an inadequate analogy, but still..........
Lately, I find that the Thai fruit folks have learned to graft the durian, so you now get pretty reliable fruit. Interestingly, some people (MANY in the Far East) really do enjoy the "strong" (to be polite) forms of durian, and seek them out. I much prefer the milder forms, and the last time I was in Kuala Lumpur, I had U24 (yes, you can buy them by number over there) and it was very good - NOT transcendent like that one on the campout, but nice. My host apologized because the vendor we got it from did not have D24, which he said was MUCH better.....
Don't reject this fruit because of some folks' bad experience with it - low temps hold down the molecules that provide the stronger odors and flavors, so ice cream is a good way to start. BUT, even there, it can fool you if you're dealing with seedlings - a really strong one makes ice cream that I do not wish to eat.
P.S. the fruit can be very high in sulfur, which is what produces the odors, flavors, and since it's quite fatty and slow to digest, the burps.
Borned and grew up in Malaysia and eat durian all my life until I left for US in '83. Have been missing the real variety ever since. Those that are sold in the US were mainly from Thailand. They then to be meatier but not as pungent (to me, if it fragrant!). Growing in nothern Malaya, I think we have the best durian ever. I rmeember in 83 before i left KL, we have a group of expats from Texas and Oklahoma who took up the challenge of eating durian. After they have eaten the first two pods by pinching their nose and then thoroughly savor the flavor, they were hooked and eat the rest of some 20 durian that we had for a group picnic! You never know what you miss until you triy it, at least twice!
My wife tells me that as a child in Vietnam, she would put durian husks under her bed because, "it smelled like perfume". I was at an engagement party for a Vietnames couple and I ate a creme puff from a tray on one end of the table. It was delicious so I got another one from a second tray. While I was desperately looking for a place to spit it out, I was thinking how to politely tell everyone not to eat any of these that were made with spoiled cream. I then realized that people were enjoying them and, "oh, that was durian". I make durian ice cream for my wife and I definitely do not lick my fingers in the process.
Once, in Kuala Lumpur, I came across a circle of people surrounding a couple of tables. This was in a busy part of the city. At the tables were customers eating durian. The circle was a bunch of old men watching the reactions as Westerners would come into the circle and suddenly become aware of the smell.
Dear people: There are some things on our wonderful planet that should not be eaten, sand, rocks, twigs, Durian and Irish food. Bourdain and Zimmerman do not eat the crap that you think they eat, they spit it out! This is firsthand from crew members on their show. They load up with prescription stomach medication prior to the show and both of them inhale Lipitor by the bushel due to off the charts Cholesterol levels. Enough said, the only decent cooking in this universe is Italian, case closed. There should be a world summit where all other food is outlawed. By the way you cannot get a decent meal in the whole United Kingdom, been to any Welsh restaurants lately?
Rubbsh...you find great food all over te world!
What? It sounds by your rather English comment-Rubbish, that you are from the UK. Tell me what you had for dinner, it probably was some grisly horrible tasting meat with boiled flavorless potatoes and a blood soup. I imagine dessert was a tasteless scone, which is useful for playing hockey and little else. Thank God we won the revolutionary war, which by the way, was not about freeing our country from your dreadful hell, but finally getting a chance to eat some decent food.Go back to your cold damp rocky craphole you call a country and have a warm tea, cheerio mate! The one and only thing the United Kingdom gave us were the Beatles. Class dismissed.
durian is something like parmesan cheese or shark meat. properly prepared and cooked it can be very good....if not it can be stomach turning. i had it once and the smell filled the house for days. The finished product was pretty good tho.
I've had durian milkshake at a Vietnamese restaurant, and durian popsicles from the Asian market, but never the fresh real thing. The milkshake and popsicles were pretty tasty though.
I've bought a Durian from ranch 99. It tasted nothing like the real thing. It was dry and tough with an awful odor. Best thing to do is to try Durian in Malaysia. Malaysia produces one of the best grades of Durian. Yes, there are grades! If you really don't like the good grade of Durian in Malaysia then you can safely say you hate Durians. As for me? I love durians but I will never buy any Durian from the Asian grocery store in the US again after my ranch 99 experience!
I had durin while in Malaysia – I can honestly say it is not my favorite food. My experience showed that men are more apt to eat and enjoy the durin than women, they often freeze it wo that they may enjoy the ripe fruit during the winter moinths. My first bite exploded in my mouth and up into my nasal passages and brain. The taste and smell stayed with me for a long time. My hotel had signs posted that durin was not permitted on its grounds I can understand completely!!
So wrong. There are 2 types of durian sweet and bitter. Unless you get it fresh from the tree, you probably have a bad one.
The durian is like NYC, you either hate it or love it. As a transplanted Singaporean, I miss the durian but cannot find any worthy export outside of SE Asia. Anthony loves it, Andrew hates it. Point made.
My wife is Filipina and years ago we took a boat from Zamboanga City in Mindanao to Dumaguete City in Negros. It was an overnight trip and right before leaving they must have loaded durians on the boat. The putrid smell was unbelievable.Sometimes you can get use to a bad smell. Not this time. For 15 hours I was nauseated and did not sleep a wink. I hate to think what it would taste like.
My God. Durian cake? I've never been so glad to have a milk allergy. Thankfully, I can hide behind that (sadly) true excuse if I am ever offered any.
I grew up with durian and really, it's not that bad. I don't like it, don't eat it, and I think it stinks; but I think there is worse stuff out there. Everyone in my family loves it though. It was never my cup of tea, but if you're around it enough, I guess you get used to the smell? I can imagine though if you've never had it, how bad it might be, but I'd rather eat durian than some of the things Zimmerman and Bourdain try. One of my college bosses was obsessed with strange food and knew that I was SE Asian and wanted me to bring some durian for him to try. I remember being on the greyhound bus with my durian and thinking that the man next to me stunk to high heavan, only to realize, when I unzipped my bag to get something, that the stinky person was me!!!! I was so embaressed and hadn't thought about frozen durian defrosting and therefore smelling up the entire bus. I made it back to school okay and gave the durian to my boss. He told me that he tried it and spit it out promptly although it was not the most disgusting thing he'd eaten.
Ack! You just reminded me. My ex is Japanese. She snacked on stuff I wouldn't sample on a dare.
I just don't get people like Anthony Bourdain, or Andrew Zimmern, or you! I mean, why the fascination with "highest possible impact" food? Food that has the greatest impact on the animal being eaten, or on the person eating it. Ughhh, just so repugnant, all of it; the mindset and all. In a world with astoundingly bountiful, beautiful, delicious things to eat, I just can't fathom why one would go looking for this "peak experience" bizarre food kind of thing. I would no more want to eat the brain of some baby animal than I would a fish that was alive until – well, it's still alive!... or a durian. There's not room in my life for one more significant oddity!
How about finding room to grow and expand your horizons?
I think people are just buying into the hype and are over-sensitive because of all of the bad publicity. I have had it, and while it does smell of 'old onions/garlic' it is far from offensive, at least to me. We had a tasting, and everyone that tried it had at least a second piece. Advertising works both ways...tell someone it is bad long enough they will blindly follow.
Baaaaaaaa!
I had some durian ice cream when visiting the Philippines (where you are NOT allowed to bring durian fruit on an airplane) and I survived. That said, I cannot contemplate actually eating the fruit (pulp?) unless threatened with death by flogging.
I was given the opportunity to try a Durian fruit at work. Given some of the noxious stench I often am subject to (Thanks Dave...) I thought the Durian wouldn't be a problem. Sure people said it smells horrid but come on, it can't be that bad.
Wrong.
Very wrong.
The Durian was served to us by a tiny Equadorian midget, we knew something was afoot when she scuttled away, holding her nose and giggling. There was a faint aroma of old onion and foot. Ok, so far it wasn't too bad. We descended upon the notorious fruit with caution. It wasn't until we cut into it that we were rendered incapacitated by the foul gut-wrenching stench. Dave spontenously threw up, Eric lost all bowel control and began to deficate wildly all over the office, it was like some kind of hellish water-sprinkler but instead of water...Human feces. Apparently the scent of the Durian can cause bowel spasms. Wilhelm was the luckiest of all, he fell unconscious right away, his muscles contracting wildly until his spine snapped and all that remained was a rictus of agony. The bilge-rot seemed to curdle the air with its rancidity. Wood moldered, metal rusted and our very flesh became pocked with infection. By the end of the afternoon we were soaked in bodily fluids of repulsion. We were beyond saving.
Damn you! Damn you! My boss just asked what the hell was so funny! Damn you, sir!
I originally wanted to try durian, but now I think I'll try to find something already made or a really promising recipe first. Thanks for sharing your experience! I would have opened the durian in my kitchen (I don't have a backyard), which would have been a terrible experience from the sound of yours!
got a bag of durian chips (like potato chips) in Thailand and thought they were delicious. Could not put them down.
I tried it on my first trip to Indonesia. Walking into the dining room reminded me of the three week long summer vacation I took where I had turned off the air conditioning and forgotten to take the trash out from under the sink. As I have learned that any food eaten by a culture for 100 years or more is not going to hurt you, I tried it. Once you're passed the smell it is actually kind of sweet. By the way: DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL when eating it. It can be a deadly combination.
My coworker loved these, and once a week, I would go home early because of it. He would clear out our floor, it was just hideous. Not as bad as bamboo shoots and stinky bean curd, durians are at least better. Some foreign food can be a bit too exotic for my taste.
I lived in Malaysia for 3 years...the signs on the hotel doors about no durian allowed made me curious...but then riding down the street in a city of millions in a country that has a year-round temp average of 92 degrees and same percentage of humidity and still over all of the heat, humans, and humidity there is that undeniable stench of a sewer backing up...unforgettable. The only thing that upped the shock level was in finding out that they make ice cream with it...
I was raised in Singapore, I first thought, when I smelled rotten onion, "oh, goody, someone has durian". Supposedly, if you pour some water into the rind, and drink it, it takes away the smell. Dad loved it, Mom hated it.
I tried it in candy form. It tasted good but the burps haunted me ALL day. I will not try it again.
While sailing around the world on my 40 foot sailboat, we anchored in Changi, Singapore. Approaching the train station on the way to Customs and Immigration, I saw sign at the bottom of the steps: "NO DURIANS ALLOWED". I had heard about Singapore's strict rules of conduct, but, even so, I was shocked that they would openly discriminate against a poor, defenseless minority. Little did I know.
We ended up spending six months in Singapore, due to my suffering an injury when the boat was struck by lightning. I got to meet many Durians, and came to agree with the authorities, that they should definitely be kept off the train, even if they were a poor minority. However, in Southeast Asia, The Durian is considered The King Of Friut.
At the start of durian season numerous stands are set up along streets and walkways and the ritual begins. Whole families spend evenings making the rounds, tasting samples. No one makes a hasty purchase; it is almost like buying a diamond.
Be forewarned, however. The smell may be overpowering, the taste, once acquired, is very good, but your skin AND your urine will smell like durian for as least two days.
Aah yes, I remember traveling around the Pacific Rim when I was a young lad. Our tramp steamer pulled onto the busy seaport of Port Klang in the early hours, and you could smell the wonderful aromas of a diverse culture. I embarked on a fabulous adventure that day including my first taste of the wonderful fruit called Durian. The natives had a variety of names for it, including old sweat sock, morning breath and bean farts. I was not deterred and plunged right in for a taste! As everyone in the famous Kam Fong outdoor market watched, I took a big bite. My eyes immediately rolled back into my face and I began to gag uncontrollably and promptly threw up all over my friendly native guide,Fong. He was laughing uncontrollably as were several dozen sweaty natives. I made everyones day as talk about the Dumb ass American made the rounds. I will never ever sample Durian again, and as a rule I usually head to the nearest McDonalds whenever I am in Malaysia.
Please people do not have hate for the tasty Durian. I have a simple but tasty recipe for your next Durian party. By the way, as an appetizer serve a steaming plate of Pemmican with warm clam juice, yummy. Firstly, completely clean a fresh Durian, remove from pod and place on a cedar plank (Home Depot 3/16 inch thick), slather with bacon fat and butter (thank you Paula Fat Ass Deen), place in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 7 hours. When you can smell cedar burning, your smoke detectors going off and the fire department is at the front door, remove from oven. Now when it cools remove the putrid, disgusting, pile of crap known as Durian and eat the cedar board. Bon Appetit!
This is one of those logic tests, right? If it smells this bad, and tastes this bad, why would you even want to get near the stuff? Just stop beating your head against the wall, and it will stop hurting.
I'll take eating good durian (fresh) over yogurt anytime! Also, over the taste of India Pale Ale (IPA).
The picture of the durian you bough isn't fresh. A fresh durian, the outside should be greener in color. The flesh is a pale creamy yellow color and the flesh should be firm looking but soft and custardy. The membrane that holds the flesh pods should be white-ish, not the bruised color you got in your picture. Seems to me what you bought was probably previously frozen and definitely passed its prime.
Year ago, when I was with a start-up, I invited my team mates for a "durian party" that was held at outside back porch of the facility. About 6 colleagues showed up. From a sealed plastic box, I gave each person a seed to try. The party lasted no more than 5 minutes as no one asked for seconds. When pressed for comments, one said, "Hmm it certainly tasted different". Then I resealed the box and brought it back to my dorm fridge in my room and later took the box home at the end of the day. The fridge smelled of durian for at least a week after that.
The next year, at almost the same day, I emailed the invitation to my colleagues titled "2nd annual durian tasting party". I waited at the appointed time but no one showed up :-)
At the end of a very long day, that made me laugh very hard. Thank you for that.
What a timely article! I just had a smoothie with durian in it today. It had been a few months since I had had a similar smoothie, so the strong flavor threw me off for a few minutes. But then I found it delightful.
I don't think I could eat the raw fruit like the author, but it's tasty in a bizarre way if it's frozen and then added to smoothies. My smoothie had fresh coconut water, almond butter, hemp seed, and kale – in addition to the infamous durian. With other compatible flavors, it's actually quite delightful – and not noxious.
I think the durian you bought was somewhat rotten (from the look of the outer shell). Tip: a good, fresh durian has a thick custard texture, not the dilluted one.
Anyway, I guess durian is like stinky toufu. You either love or hate it.
I LOVE DURIAN!!!!! My dad had me eating these (the ones from Malaysia are better than the Thailand ones) since I was a wee child. Nothing like the smell of durian permeating through the fridge to spice up all the other foods!
Dirty socks? Cheese, kimchi, sauerkraut. Sock flavor can be good. Whenever I see durian, it looks so large and ungainly. And the price is never clearly labeled, like it's reserved for the asians. It's quite intimidating, even minus the smell. I prefer to keep it a mystery for now.
I had durian once. I almost died. I bItched about this disaster for the following 2 years. Then last spring, through no fault of my own, I got suckered into trying a durian shake, and... It was absolutely delicious. Delectable, almost. Would highly recommend :)
E. Asians think Westerners eating bleu or limburger cheese is disgusting, like rotten milk. Which it is ... kind of. I've had fresh durian in Thailand and it's not as bad as the writer says. The one s/he sampled may actually have been old and somewhat rotten, or at least too ripe.
There has to be some sort of genetic disposition to how the odor/aroma is sensed and perceived by the brain. I can't think why someone would try it more than once if the taste/smell made them vomit, though.
I tried durian ice cream in Cambodia and it was like eating rancid custard out of a freshly soiled baby's diaper. The taste and smell discriptions in this blog don't convey the true depth of it's foulness. Word up !
I was born in Singapore. I migrate to NYC because of durians!
hahahahahahahahaha.
I'm fr Msia and I LOOOOOOVE Durian... it's the best... I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper ... it's super Yummy!!!! btw... the during you showed here looked rotten.. :)
I tasted durian at a neighborhood potluck dinner, in my diverse and characterful neighborhood. I had no preconceptions when it was offered as something interesting and different to taste. I remember being intrigued with the appearance of the fruit pod, the creamy texture and subtle sweetness. No drama. No sense of triumphing over a negative first impression. For the demographically curious, I'm a caucasian American woman. Go figure.
I wonder if this is one of those foods, like cilantro, where your genetic makeup influences how the food tastes to you. Some people have a genetic mutation that makes cilantro taste like soap. I wonder if some people have a genetic profile that makes durian taste custardy and lovely while others think it tastes like rotten onions. There has to be some explanation since clearly there is quite a divide in opinions about it.
Or possibly a difference in the type of durian the person gets. I've read that there are a few varieties of the fruit that are edible.
Or as some other posters mentioned, a difference between fresh and frozen fruit?
And/or maybe an acquired taste. At first I didn't like the taste of cilantro much. Even the smell offended me. But at some point I began craving it in Tex Mex dishes. Now I can't understand ever disliking it.
Hey, I had the same experience - I used to think cilantro tasted like aluminum foil smeared with dish soap, and then quite suddenly I started liking it a lot. Oddly, I don't think my perception of the taste changed... I just came to appreciate soapy tinfoil, somehow! Bring on the durian!
Eh white people ... they only know how to eat bland things and this article very much proves it.
" "No Durian" advisories adorn walls throughout the fruit's native Southeast Asia."
I think the fact that advisories against the fruit are posted in SE Asia would point your statement out as a gross generalization.
The "No Durian" signs are only found in hotels and airports, where tourists go. It is actually a courtesy to non-SEA tourists. Funny how in my family everyone loves durian except for my dad :) Definitely an acquired taste type of food!
what a crock of racist crap. The hotter and spicier the food the more this mostly white guy likes it. Same for my extremely white wife.
I'm a typical white American male. I bought a durian in Chinatown in NYC once and brought it home (on a weekend, just to be safe), expecting something like the experience you've reported. But it wasn't that bad! Kind of stinky, but tolerable, and it tasted reasonably OK. I ate the whole thing in one sitting, and there was no bad reaction later.
I've heard though that most of the durian sold in American has been frozen, and that if you want the true durian experience it just has to be fresh, so maybe that was it.
I grew up in SE Asia and always enjoyed durian. I think articles like this give people a negative bias before they even try it. Half the time people probably just end up eating half-rotten fruit without realizing it. Like any other fruit, there's a pretty wide range in terms of the quality you get. I suggest maybe trying out durian ice cream first if you're not willing to go all the way.
I usually eat durian out of the fridge. The cold+the creamy texture/taste makes it pretty similar to ice cream. As for the flavor, I can't really describe it, other than I have no clue where people get "rotting flesh" or "onions" or "gym socks" from. That's like describing an apple as tasting like "battery acid"!
I'm going to try it in a frozen form like ice cream to see if that's more to my liking. Almost bought durian pops the other day, but didn't think I could get home quickly enough to keep them from melting in the trunk.
I have lived in SE Asia for 27 years. About half the local population loves durian, the other half hates it. Some say the smell gives them a horrible headache or makes them nauseous. Aside from noxious belches, the one side effect that bothers many in this hot, humid climate is that durian devourers, when they perspire, smell like a sweaty version of durian. Not very polite for everyone else at the office, or on the airplane, or other such confined areas. So if you eat it, be prepared to take a shower before you hang out with others!
I have tried durian. It has a smell that I cannot – nor others – adequately describe. As bad as it smells (the worst), it has a totally different smell from another foul odor that most people may familiarly know as that coming from a skunk. Its texture within the pod is wonderfully silky smooth as custard. Wooo! Unfortunately, the smell of the durian got to me and made me gag before I was able to successfully consume the durian. I will try again someday out in the open air at a countryside far away from the populated areas.
I had durien pastries in China during a business dinner. They were tasty and mild, not the horror stories I've heard about durien. However, I was not exposed to the raw fruit itself.
It's the Asian version of Blue Cheese. It's an acquired taste.
Durian has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mom is from Indonesia and when she got together with her sisters, look out! My aunt use to buy it in a market and drive it to us. Her car NEVER smelled the same. This isn't something that goes away after a few hours, it lingers forever. I don't get what people see in the fruit, it tastes like dogs ass.
great..now dog ass tastes better
I purchased Durian flavor sugar wafers from a local Asian market. Took one bite of the cookie and couldn't bring myself to take another. We double- or triple- ziploc baggied the remaining cookies for disposal and you could still smell them. And the burbs...I tasted that small bite for the rest of the day. NEVER AGAIN!
I bought some sugar wafers in the Bangkok airport thinking it would be a painless way to share the fruit with my friends. WRONG. Now I have no friends.
I'm from Indonesia and obviously was growing up with durian as one of our tastiest (and rather pricey) fruits. I understand some people don't like durian (even my mom didn't like it). However, describing it as negatively as in the article seems to be too simple minded. Nature provides diversity in so many ways, including in terms of vegetations and fruits; it is for all of us to appreciate and try to see the good sides of everything that is "different". For me it's similar to music. I love jazz, but some people may just don't see the beauty of improvisation in jazz, for example; however, people who doesn't like jazz usually will not say that jazz is bad...
Ummm, I don't think you can fairly compare flavors to music. When offensive music is heard, one can merely walk away, roll up the car window, or put in earbuds.
But nothing, I mean NOTHING will rinse the taste of rotten onions mixed with garbage out of your mouth. I concede that while fed upon such a diet from childhood, one might possibly traumatize the tastebuds so deeply that they go into hiding and therefore make such an item (will not call it food) palatable, I submit that it is not a natural response.
We were driving on the PIE expressway in Singapore when we noticed the persistent and unmistakable smell of durian....but nothing in sight, even as it got stronger and stronger. Then, after about 10 minutes we caught sight of a pickup at least 1/2 mile ahead. As we closed on the pickup we saw that it was loaded with durians on their way to a wet market.....Singapore Law forbids taking a durian into any public airconditioned space, including stores and public transport.
Hero supermarket in Balikpapan, Indonesia 2003 was the first place I came across this. There was a 5ft pile of fresh ones just inside the door. I made my way quickly to the back of the supermarket to find the dried fish counter – slight improvement. Moving a few aisles over I found the fresh meat counter – some of the meat was so fresh it still had the fur on and quite long tails... even this was better. I settled for standing by the open door to the dumpsters. King of fruits – no... evil dictatorial despot of fruits – maybe.
I gave my 6 months old daughter (half American) a lick just for her to try since she looked at me with wanting eyes while i was eating it, and she kept asking for more. My 2 year old daughter was next to me, undisturbed by the "odor" and was about to try it before my husband (American) made a comment how stinky it is.
"American" is NOT an ethnicity. Your daughter may be half-Caucasian, half-Chinese, half-Hispanic, etc. However, she is entirely the nationality of her birth country. If she was born in America, she is American. If she was born in France, she is French. Unless she carries dual citizenship – then and ONLY then can she be half-American. Geez.
Don't have "a cow" over a small mistake like that, Heather! We're having a learning experience on durian, NOT English.
They do carry dual citizenship.
I tried Durian in Bali with my fiance. We both enjoyed it. To us, it really tastes like a cheese. I think you really need to travel and get it fresh- right off the tree. I would eat it again in a heartbeat in a tropical setting- outdoors.
It is a very delicious fruit. It's one of those foods, either you love it or hate it. I get it when it's on sale in local Asian markets. Durian is better than stinky cheeses anytime.
The Durian pictured in the article looks half rotten. There are excellent Thai Durians that do not have such a strong aroma. The variety is called "Mon Thong" or Golden Pillow. A good Durian does not have a putrid smell. You can get frozen Durian in most Asian markets. Buy the cleaned fruit that comes in a plastic container, not the whole frozen fruit.
I think it is a delicious but very aromatic fruit...
So, how do you know when a durian has gone bad?
When it starts smelling good?
Ga! I was eating my lunch as I read this. Could not even finish...reading...lunch I needed. ;) I will eat just about anything but I am giving this a wide berth.
I am a small town Midwesterner that tried durian in college. It was served with icecream and really the entire place smelled like sulfur, natural gas, and rotten eggs. The smell aside the actual durian didn't taste terrible. I thought it was actually pleasant with ice cream. The texture was slightly off putting as it was semi-solid and sort of slimy, but it dind pair well with cheap ice cream. I am not that adventurous of an eater, and didn't realize the legend the durian has acquired. If you get the chance you should try it as I think you will find it less daunting than the original account.
I greatly enjoyed this article and laughed all the way through! I am a fruit eater and had a durian once. At a friends house, outside, on a chilly day. We tried it and it was okay when we stopped breathing and reminded ourselves it is the king of fruits. She told me to take it home. I live 15 minutes away and the stench was so horrible even driving with all the windows down on a cold day. I just HAD to stop at the nearest trash can to throw it away. It was a Walgreens trash bin outside their door. I'm sure people must have thought there was a decomposing body in there!
My brother and I are Taiwanese American. We both tried this for the first and last time in Taiwan, about 10 years ago, in the appropriate hot, outdoor setting. We could barely swallow it. The smell didn't bother me as much as the taste. From the smell I thought it would be sweet and custardy, but its mainly just soft creamy pudding texture with rank odor for a taste.
I managed to get my husband (full American) to try Durian gelatto. His opinion was that it tastes and smells like natural gas.
I could see this being a delicacy that requires multiple tries (many asian dishes are), but I haven't built up the guts to try it for a second time.
Is that a Versace plate holding the cake? I have somewhat of a china obsession.... Oh, and thanks for taking one for the team and trying this "fruit", I can now scratch that off my list of things to try! :)
This was a really disappointing read. I know CNN has a global staff. I catch CNN international in China (where I eat and enjoyed durian). It seems odd that they paid someone to eat Durian in Brooklyn and then report "Ewww, it's foreign, weird, and totally disgusting!. ( I believe the word BBBLLLLEEEAAAAAUUUUUURRRRRGGGGGGH! was used.) You now have folks around the world rolling their eyes at the level of American food sophistication.
You don't have to like durian to write about it, but you shouldn't sound like a kid being forced to eat spinach.
I didn't get sense any discomfort with "foreign" food, and it doesn't take "sophistication" to like or not like a food. Some things are unpleasant in any language. And yes, I've had durian and did not enjoy it one bit.
I don't get the onion smell reference. It stinks like barf and feet combined but it's mostly the shell that gives off most of the smell. The meat of the fruit is creamy and akin to a super pungent banana with a side of feet when you eat it. Maybe it's like cilantro, taste like soap to some people but makes guacamole awesome for most other people.
I want to know how hungry was the first person who even tried it? I would have to assume things that smell that bad are bad and will make you very ill. Has this "fruit" been scientifically proven to be truly edible? Sounds like from the burps the body doesn't care much for it either.
I have always wondered that! I figure a hungry person many centuries ago saw an animal eat it and not die.
Yes, very likely.
One "jungle survival" tip is to watch what monkeys/apes eat. If they can safely eat it, most likely it's edible for humans as well (including various insects, which are high in protein).
My understanding is the fruit is highly nutritious – even an aphrodisiac (go figure!). Some folks in the raw food community call it a "superfood." If you ever make it to Austin, TX, check out the Juicebox, which makes smoothies with durian in it. A safe and not so smelly way to expand your palate.
Apparently there are a number of different species and cultivars of durian – perhaps some of the variation in odor and taste discussed by posters can be attributed to this.
My burps smell like garbage after eating radishes.
Your garbage smells like radish burps.
The palins love this stuff. The smell reminds them of their trailer.
I don't get this article...one of my favorite dim-sum treats are pastry crescents filled with Durian custard...the smell is sort of odd, like a good stinky cheese. The taste: super-buttery, apricot/mango, black pepper, hint of vanilla silk...SO GOOD! I am guessing you got a not-good Durian, it should have a buttery/peppery/mango savor – not like garbage. It's not like I grew up eating it either (midwest USA).
Gotta be a "different strokes" sort of thing. You mention mango– that's a fruit I have trouble with. Each bite tastes okay at frst, but then this awful, chemical after-taste kicks in. Yuck. Oddly, mango blended with other fruits, like strawberry, is fine.
Persimmons are in this weird group for me as well. I keep trying them, different varieties and degrees of ripeness, because people rave about them, but always inedible to me. Another poster wrote about durian being revolting the first 3 tries and irresistible after that, so I won't give up on mangoes and persimmons - waiting for that cilantro breakthrough!
I agree with Anna! There are several tropical fruits that taste completely different, eaten fresh where they are grown, compared to how they taste after being picked, shipped and stored for several days before being eaten. Sometimes you actually have to travel to experience the best of certain foods.
I tried it in Singapore. I would rather eat a dead person.
I tried some durian ice cream at a Thai restaurant. I asked if I could sample it but the waiter made me pay for a serving. My husband could not eat any more than just his initial tiny taste. I could tell that it was really high quality, high fat, and creamy, but the sulfurous odor that ascended into my nasopharynx as it melted on my tongue just kind of spoiled the experience. They obviously used only a small amount of the fruit!
I have heard that it makes incredible ice cream and texture-wise, I can see why. But I'm surely not gonna go out of my way to try.
My wife is from the Philippines, and she talked me into trying it...I had to hold my nose shut just to be able to get a small piece in my mouth...and it tasted as bad as it smelled...it came right back up. My wife likes it though...said she puked it up 3 different times before she finally liked it...after one time of it coming back up, why would you try it again?
Why in the world would anyone put something described as rotting flesh wrapped in gym socks in their mouth? There are much more pleasurable things out there.
Ever had garlic ice cream? I'd rather eat a bug than try this again!
love the fruit. i still dont understand why people find it disgusting. sure it has a strong smell, but i find the smell quite...appetizing.
You lie like a rug!
You have some sweaty gym shorts on the side I hope. That's what makes durian worthwhile. The mold on the gym shorts is pure heaven compared to the :fruit".
I've heard so many descriptions of durian which I find so incredibly amusing. I'm from Malaysia and grew up eating durians and love it might I add, therefore describing it in the disgusting manner is not something in my vocabulary.
About the smell, I think durian should be consumed in an open air climate/somewhat tropical instead of a small apt in NY – that's just a disaster waiting to happen (as your article)! Next time..go to South East Asia..sit on the roadside and consume the magical fruit. It's a whole different experience and you won't be so taken aback with the smell. Give it another go..in the right setting. It's fantastic!
Yeah, they eat all sorts of disgusting vile caca in S.E. Asia... all the while bad-mouthing Western cuisine as "bland".
Compared to the garbage they were stuffing down their gullets, I'd have to agree about that although their judgement of "bland" translates to "edible" in English.
While I was there (3 years) I stopped asking "what it was". If I'd kept up with the questions I would have starved to death inside a week's time.
Thanks Anna for sticking up for durians and for defending its honour! :-)
I am from Malaysia too, and I have to say, I love durians! :-) In fact, many people love it too! It is called endearingly as the King of fruits! :-)
My white boyfriend begs to differ though... . Perhaps white people just lack some special enzymes in their mouth to properly metabolize durian in order to enjoy the fruit? :-)
I tried durian that I got fresh from a vendor in KL last summer on my honeymoon... I had a really hard time keeping it down, between the odor and the taste. I loved everything else I ate in Malaysia and Singapore, but never will I eat durian again :) I'll stick with mangosteens!
Love it too. To me, the scent is sweet and definitely not gym socks; reminds me of really really ripe bananas. As for the taste, I adore the creamy richness. Sometimes, it's almost too sweet. The texture is just luscious.
I actually met a caucasian who wasn't bothered by durian. She spent her pre-teen years in Singapore. Says that to her, it's just smells like a durian, not bad or good, just a durian. She doesn't have such violent reactions to it. Which makes me think that if you grew up with people telling you that durian is delicious, you can get past the smell and enjoy it. Like KH above and her babies, no complaint about the durian until Dad made his 'stinky' comment.
I remember him Andrew Z. on the Typical Mary Ellen show :-)she also went to Cub Foods in Tenn or Kentucky whereever they filmed her show ! I'm sooooo tired cant wait to go hom e & sleep