Right now, you are thinking one of three things-

1.) WTF is a durian?
2.) OMG! DURIAN!
or
3.) Didn’t that guy who eats weird stuff on the travel channel try durian and almost throw up?

Well, let me start off by explaining what a durian is.

Known as the King of fruits in Southeast Asia, The durian covered in a thick, spiky, thorn covered husk. Inside, there are several lobes of a soft pungent fruit. The smell, as described in this wikipedia entry as abhorrent and revolting to some, while others may enjoy the flavour that has no equal. Somewhere between 2 and 7 pounds, they’re big, and not something us westerners see very often at all. Infact, if we want one, we have to go looking for it.

Back in January, my mom and I were making our monthly trip to the Asian grocery store. It’s about an hour and a half drive, so we carpool, and try to condense all shopping needs from this particular store into one trip a month. While we were there, my mom spied the cooler where they keep the durian in the produce department. Sneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comhe picked one up and started talking about how she wanted one really bad. I talked her out of it, because I didn’t think she knew what she was getting into, and I figured she should probably do some research before purchasing something… like a durian.

Well, a few months passed, and during each trip, she would stare at the fruit. Contemplating purchasing it. Finally, a few days ago, she called me up and said she was going to get one, and asked if I wanted to take pictures of the occasion.

OF COURSE I DID!

So she bought one. We had planned to open it today, Friday, in the afternoon. She called me yesterday saying that the smell had taken over her fridge. I told her to wrap it in plastic and put it on the back porch. She didnt think this was a good idea, so she wrapped it in plastic, and put it in a big 5 gallon size tupperware container, and after removing a few shelves in her refrigerator to make room, placed it inside to wait until today.

She arrived around 5pm. My dad, little sisters and one of their friends came along for the occasion. NONE of us has seen the inside of one of these things. I’ve tasted durian flavoured candies (and marshmallows, heh.), but never tasted the actual fruit before. I guess I figured it was about time I got around to it.

And here is where our story turns to photos-

This is my mom suiting up for the occasion.

Note the apron and thick rubber gloves. (she hadn’t yet put on the goggles.)

In the backyard-

Note the billowing cushion of plastic that had previously been wrapped around the durian to try and keep in the smell.

In this closeup, you can see the seam where the husk can be most easily pried apart.

And the prying begins!

The fruit was very ripe when we got it, so it sort of makes sense that it would be pretty easy to open. Also, if you consider how far it has to be shipped, how long it takes to get here, and that it’s frozen during that travel.. I can understand why it would be super easy to open, and it was.

The smell hits my mom. You can see it on her face, she was NOT expecting it. Sure, the whole fruit smell,s but when you first open it, there’s this waft of strong odor that hits you.

She returned to the fruit to finish removing the first pod. There were three separate sections in this particular fruit.

You can start to see it’s… unusual texture. Its simular to that of an uncooked chicken, or pudding skin. The outside is like a thin skin, and the inside is soft like a banana.

She goes in for her first bite!

A moment to reflect on the flavour… (or maybe she’s trying not to gag.)

Wait, what? you’re smiling?

Once the fruit has been removed from the husk, it looks simular to chest cavity. It’s kind of strange.

Here you can fully appreciate the texture. Sort of like foie gras.. only.. its fruit, and to me, thats just wrong.

My little sister and I tried some of it. Here is a shot of her right before she threw up. Seriously.

I put mine on a spoon. I took a small bite, but I couldnt go any further than that. It just was NOT for me

And one more, just to PERK your senses…

So there you have it.

I can definately say the experience was unlike any other. My mom said it best when she described the flavour of our particular fruit as being like that of bananas and garlic, with a hint of swiss cheese. My little sister added “it smells like grandma” which I thought was REALLY funny. Not that my grandma has a particularly… durian-esque odor about her, but having lived with her lived with her a few years during college… I can totally appreciate what she was trying to explain. (mothballs and generic old people smell.)

I wasn’t so excited about the tasting as my mom was. I had previously experienced the flavour during a horrible mixup involving jelly filled marshmallows from the same Asian grocery store. I don’t know the language, so I was selecting the flavours based on the cute little drawings on the front. I got green tea flavoured, strawberry flavoured, and what I thought was Lychee flavoured.

When I got them home, my husband and I, who LOVE lychees, were so excited about the combination of lychee and marshmallow, that we played “chubby bunny” with them.

…Only they were durian flavoured.

So, we had gaping mouthfuls of marshmallows with durian flavoured jelly filling inside. Not what we were expecting. Infact, it was enough to keep my husband inside the house, watching the durian experiment from behind the smell barrier which is our sliding glass door. My dad was in there with him, I think the smell got to him too.

Anyways.. I saved a section of it in the freezer so I could try and come up with some sort of culinary concoction in which to use it as an ingredient. My mom said I should make some muffins, but I think she’d be the only person eating those.. I’m thinking if I add enough acidic fruits along with it, maybe it will cover up some of the more… unique flavour qualities of this very interesting fruit.

So, if I haven’t scared you away thus far, any ideas as to what I should do with this thing? it smells pretty bad when I open the container so… maybe cooking it isn’t such a great idea.. hehe..

-A.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 8:31 pm and is filed under February 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.