pineapples, mangoes, and... durian

one interesting thing about living in asia is all of the exotic fruit available. the pineapple here is amazingly sweet and juicy- so much better than the sour pineapple wedges we get in cans back home. there are a many different varieties and sizes of bananas. pummelo look like and has the texture of large grapefruit, but are not bitter. mangoes are eaten both ripe when the fruit is sweet and orange in color, and commonly eaten before it has ripened- when it is a pale green color and quite tart. there are also a lot of interesting and odd-looking fruit like mangosteen, lychee, longgan and rambutan but i'm not a big fan of fruits with seeds inside (too much of a hassle) so i don't eat as much of those.

by far the most bizarre fruit here has got to be the durian. it's a large fruit, around the size of a bowling ball, with a spiky green exterior as you can see in the photo. it grows on very tall trees and, as with coconuts, you don't want to be sitting under the tree when the fruit comes crashing down.

of course what everyone notices first about the durian is its smell, described as 'banana, mango, pineapple, pawpaw (all somewhat over-ripe) and vanilla', 'garlic, smoked ham, and rancid cheese', or 'the flesh of some animal in a state of putrefaction' depending on who you ask. thais say that the fruit smells like hell but tastes like heaven. f.w. bubridge, a 19th-century explorer described the taste in detail as 'a combination of corn flour and rotten cheese, nectarines, crushed filberts, a dash of pineapple, a spoonful of old dry sherry, thick cream, apricot pulp and a soupcon of garlic, all reduced to the consistency of a rich custard'. doesn't sound like heaven to me!

part of the problem is that the fruit is so stinky- a single ripened fruit sitting warm hotel lobby could fill the entire area with the smell. hence the fruit has been banned in most public places and on public transport here in thailand. some hotels and buildings have signs specifically prohibiting durian, like the one shown here. that doesn't stop people from trying to sneak durian onto buses, into taxis, and even onto airplanes.

last year there was a security alert when someone tried to check in a box of durian onto a virgin blue flight in australia. virgin blue's boss described the smell as 'something you'd find in your outdoor dunny (toilet)' and noted that he could smell the durian from '50 feet away' when the plane was parked on the tarmac.

so with all that said, why are some people so crazy about durian? i've got to think that, like smelly cheese or natto, durian is an acquired taste that's difficult to adapt to in later life. a bit ashamed to admit it, but after all these years i've never tried fresh durian. i did try durian ice cream but wasn't very impressed- the taste was exactly the same as the smell... urgh. one thing that really did surprise me was fried durian chips- i tried them and they're really great and taste absolutely nothing like durian stench.

it may be an old wives' tale, but there's a common belief here that eating durian and drinking alcohol is dangerous or even deadly, but the recent health warning focuses more on the high calorific content rather than any dangers with alcohol. Durian can be dangerous in other ways, as the spikey fruit can be fatal if it falls from a tree or building and strikes someone. supposedly durians were hurled at invading burmese via a durian catapult when the two countries were warring.

crazier still, some people believe that durians can act as an aphrodisiac and are being marketed as an alternative to viagra in some western countries.

if you want to try durian, this website recommends the mon thong ('golden pillow') durian as you will experience 'no stomach cramps and no excessive winds as with cabbage, and no discharge pain as with chili. but there will be burping, and burps do smell like the durian fruit...' the author goes on to note that advantage of the mon thong is that although 'there will still be burping, ... it's not as frequent as with other varieties.' not sure if excessive burping would negate or accentuate the aphrodisiac qualities of durian.

perhaps i'll pick up the courage to try some fresh durian (of the mon thong variety) the next time i'm in a market. in the meantime, pass me those durian chips!