httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLW2fY-8o6s
“Try leaving cheese and a dead body out in the sun and you’re in the same neighborhood as the smell of durian.” — Tony Bourdain
Durian is easily one of the stinkiest and weirdest natural foods the wonderful world has to offer. The fruit comes wrapped in a thorny hard shell, protecting the mushy pudding like segments of each pungent piece of fruit.
When traveling in Southeast Asia, there is absolutely no excuse to not partake of this semi-bizarre fruit. Some find it rather enjoyable, however others find the texture, smell, and taste close to unbearable. It must be tried to formulate a legit opinion (merely smelling does not count).
My bottom line advice is whatever you do, don’t smell it, and you should be fine. I have grown to personally be quite fond of the fruit, mostly due to to the repulsive burps and acid reflux that follows an eating session.
I drank a Pepsi after eating durian and the carbonation pressurized my stomach, forcing me to release gnarly rotting onions, fermented avocado, and dead carcass burps every few minutes. Great stuff!!! Next time you go on a date, you know what to eat a couple hours in advance.
The flavors of Durian are used in other items such as candies, ice cream, chips, pastes, and powders.
So eat at your own risk, but do eat it, and maybe even try to tackle the durian buffet!
-Migration Mark
Great video, Mark. Durian is known as the King of Fruits in Singapore and Taiwan.
People go wild for it, but the smell of it can seep into pretty much anything. It’s so smelly that it’s been banned from many hotels across Asia. Back in 2007, Thai scientists were able to breed an odorless type of durian. People went crazy. Most durian lovers (like cheese lovers) believe that the stinkier the fruit, the better the taste.
I’m from Malaysia. Back when I was small, my father brought the family on durian hunt in durian orchards at his small hometown. We visited several and ate in huts of those orchards. Talk about freshness!
West peninsular (WM) and East Malaysia (EM) have different durian season. My grandfather has 2 durian trees in his backyard. And unfortunately, I don’t have the luck to taste those super yummy, juicy durians cos we live in WM and EM.
My personal favourite is the bitter kind. The bitter it is, the better it is! The bitter kind has a top grade version called XO. Haven’t tried before, it costs a fortune. I stay away from the milkier taste durian. You can tell if they are the sweet or bitter like med variety just by looking at the colour of the durian. But, sometimes, that doesn’t work and you’ll get a surprise that it’s a bitter one when you’re expecting a milky one. Score one!! My family all loves the bitter kind.
Wow Amber, you know a lot about Durian! Thanks for this awesome advice and for recommending the XO. I hope to sample that in the future. I’ve had a few bitter durians and I agree that they are incredible! Thanks for checking this out!
You can find durian candy in your local Asian grocery stall. Most durian found in USA are frozen which is really unfortunate.
Yah, that’s too bad, but frozen durian is better than no durian!