Durian, the Evil Fruit

Cafe Society
1

A story about it here: Durian Dilemma: Would I Be Bold Enough to Eat Thailand’s Exotic Fruit?

Well, I’ve done better than the wimpy missionary. I actually have tried it, and I hate it, hate it, hate it. You will run across farangs (Westerners) over here who will claim they love it, but I’ve always looked at them suspiciously and considered them posers. The stuff is evil. Smells like someone died, and that’s just if it’s on a different floor from you. Seriously. Many hotels and airlines have banned the stuff on account of it’s rotten-corpselike odor.

I’m not in the habit of giving orders to the wife, but I have summarily banned durian from the home. I’ve told this story elsewhere on the Board before, but one time in the early years of our marriage, the wife and I lived in a small one-room efficiency. The bed was the centerpiece of the room, there was a refrigerator next to it, and we viewed TV and videos from the bed.

One day, we made the cross-city trek to see the wife’s parents, who were still alive then. This was before the Skytrain, when these things could take half a day. We returned home that evening, and unbeknownst to me my mother-in-law had given the wife some durian. It was wrapped in foil and sealed in a Tupperware bowl. When we got home, she put it inside the refrigerator. So it’s sealed in aluminum foil, a Tupperware bowl and a refrigerator. I still don’t know about it.

We watch a movie. Some ways into it, I begin noticing this awful, awful smell, subtle at first, but definitely putrid. I think it’s me! We keep watching the movie, and the smell just grows stronger. I’m thinking Man! I really need to take a shower. A little while later, I’m thinking the wife could actually divorce me, I’ve never smelled this bad before.

After the movie, I actually apologized for my smell and said I was off to take a shower. That’s when I learned about the durian, which was really stinking the place up at that point.

It’s been banned ever since.

2

You can not, will not, like durian Siam Sam I am? Even if it is served with spam and rack of lamb, or a hint of jam? No durian for Sam of Siam, oh damn.

3

I saw that stuff on Bizarre Foods. I don’t remember for sure, but I think Andrew Zimmern barely tasted it, and found it dreadful. He asked a young local boy about it, and the kid just held his nose. The market forced the stall which sold the fruit to be set aside from all the rest.

4

After hearing about how offensive and foul durian is, I was very disappointed when I first brought home a fresh durian from the Thai market. I assume they’re probably more potent over there, but, even though the durian had a good bit of funk, I was expecting a lot more. As for the taste, I quite like it–sort of banana-y and eggy and creamy with a touch of funk and unique flavors I can’t quite describe. It’s heavenly in durian sticky rice.

5

IIRC, he couldn’t swallow it. And this is a guy who job it is to eat weird nasty shit.

6

Quite possibly; I’ve heard of durian used as an example of the sort of thing that gets turned into a status symbol by the sort of people who think that “if the common people hate it, it must be good !” Like really ugly “art” or really bad poetry or really boring literature that is supposedly superior because normal people see no value in it.

7

I picked up one a few years ago from the local international market and tried it. It wasn’t as bad or as good as I expected after having read all the hype about it. It was one of the most unusual tastes I’ve ever experienced. To me it tasted like stale caramelized vidalia onion custard with a hint of a very elusive tropical fruit taste. Onion prevailed though. It was very odd, I actually had three spoonfuls before I could determine if it was so unusual and challenging to my palate that it was good in a freaky way or if it was just plain not for me, hype notwithstanding. It’s just not for me.

8

However, Anthony Bourdain claims to like it…

9

…but claims to like oysters that were wiggling a few seconds before he eats them, but yet can’t stand natto.

10

It smells awful, but I quite liked the flavor - it doesn’t taste much like how it smells. Very mild and complex, and* very* different from anything westerners are likely to have eaten. Certainly edible though, as long as you hold your breath.

But then, I was raised in a traditional Chinese family, which means that my tolerance for eating things that make most people look away in horror is pretty high.

11

I had what was said to be a durian milkshake at a Thai (Vietnamese?) restaraunt in Massachusetts last spring, and it tasted like onion to me, too. It wasn’t all that great, but it wasn’t all that bad, either, and I liked it better than the salty lemonade I had at the same place.

12

Are the durians sold in the U.S. frozen or shipped in fresh?
For a while it looked like durian was going to be the next super food among the raw food crowd. Don’t know if it every took off.

13

I’ve never had durian in all of its raw glory before, but I nibbled on durian pastry in Shanghai (not made of powder - it was a top-notch restaurant and they used the real stuff). It tasted like boiled, sugared onion. I didn’t see the appeal.

14

I remember reading that tigers like to eat ripe durian fruit…so much so, that it is dangerous to visit the trees when the fruit is ripe.
Is this true?

15

Heh, a friend of ours brought Durian to a party that several of my college friends were having. It was an interesting experience- we cut the fruit outside and even then… it just looked disgusting and it DOES have a heavy oniony taste. Good times though, and I can at least say I’ve tried that foul fruit. I do recall it looked interesting enough though.

16

We were vacationing in Kaua’i a couple of years ago, and I went to a farmer’s market. It was held in a clearing in a quite jungly area, which area was soggy with frequent rainfall. As I eyed the mangosteen and pineapples, I became aware of a putrid stench. It was just like the sewer gas coming from a storm drain next door to my childhood home. “Jeez, this jungle stinks - must be vegetation rotting in all this damp”, I thought. Then I saw the big spiky durian on the next table and it all clicked.

I note that durian sold from a car at a local San Jose Vietnamese mall has barely no scent at all, yet this Kaua’i durian was so potent that it stunk up an entire farmers market. And no, I didn’t try any.

17

The one I bought was sitting out with the rest of the produce, room temperature, just like bananas and oranges would be.

18

Ah, he gets paid for playing up how exotic and strange stuff is. I remember on the Taiwan episode, where he spent the entire time leading up toward eating chou dofu (stinky tofu), which does smell bad, but tastes very good. I thought it was overexaggerated.

Durian that I’ve had tasted fine, but I won’t go out of my way for it. What I did like was dragonfruit. Pitaya - Wikipedia

19

I ate fresh Durian in Thailand after hearing “tastes like heaven, smells like hell” several times. Grossly exaggerated on both accounts. I’ve certainly eaten things that tasted far better and smelled far worse.

20

No. The elder gen of the fam. likes it quite well however, and brought one in at a memorable Turkey Day dinner.

I declined on grounds I wasn’t about to eat a yellow alien fetus under any circumstances. It smelled like wet socks.