Durian: Fruit or Chemical Weapon

[virginprune]

I am sure this subject has been dissected many times but today's experience lends me my take on it. Apart from the fact that it smells like a death you would rather not have, what does it have going for it? Today, a case in point, I was happily 2 hours in to a deep trance mix, I DJ,  when I became aware of what I can only describe as a very disturbing olfactory hallucination. It transpires that my partner was eating the aforementioned 'fruit' on the rear verandah, I was 12 metres away in the sala and the smell, for want of a more lucid description, was overpowering. After I donned my biological warfare suit and approached her to discuss this unforeseen fetish she has, she advised me that 'if I hold my nose it tastes nice'. If I have to hold my nose to eat anything I might as well eat my own excrement and drink from a Martian sulphur lake. ' It tastes like custard' she says...Sauce Anglaise it ain't.

The upshot is I have no interest in trying this, even though my palate is open to most things. What about the rest of you? 

Inerestingly I have just noticed that this is my post number 666. I leave that up to anyone who reads this to evaluate their own take on that possibly mystic coincidence.

Edited October 6, 2017 by virginprune
Afterthought

[Castaway]

After reading more about this fruit, I flat out refuse to touch it, taste it or be anywhere near it.

" Scientists interested in the fruit have identified several compounds that contribute to its smell, which has been said to reek of gym socks, garbage and rotting meat. "

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2017/acs-presspac-january-18-2017/whats-behind-the-durian-fruits-notorious-stench-.html

 

Edited October 6, 2017 by Castaway

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, virginprune said:

what does it have going for it?

I watched a show the other night with one of them "survival experts" and he held his breath and ate as much as he could stomach because he said its got all the essential nutrients you need to survive in the wilderness.  He was not smiling as he ate it.

[Jake]

3 hours ago, virginprune said:

The upshot is I have no interest in trying this, even though my palate is open to most things. What about the rest of you? 

Inerestingly I have just noticed that this is my post number 666. I leave that up to anyone who reads this to evaluate their own take on that possibly mystic coincidence.

Excellent, well written VirginPrune.  I noticed your reasoning for edit was "afterthought".  Do you mean "afterbirth"......he, he.  

[MacBubba]

Haven't had the fruit.  Have had the shake, which tasted like onions, so held no appeal for me.  However, as a pastillas (not the cheap durian candy that is commercially available), it is among the best.  It added a depth of flavor to an otherwise very sweet milky substance.  

[Queenie O.]

I haven't tried durian yet. The other day I was close, when I saw it inocently wrapped in sections in plastic wrap at the Hypermarket fruit department.  I probably will try it eventually, just for the experience.   I figure that there are so many more delicious tropical fruit choices, so for the meantime I'll stick with them.

[JDDavao II]

 

Durian was one of the first things I tried when I visited here for the first time in 2008. I was determined to ensure that i could live on the food so I ate durian, dinuguan, sisig, marang, and so on.

You can hold your nose to taste the first piece, if you like, because once it's in your mouth, everything changes. It's custardy, vanilla-y, sweet and creamy. Subsequent pieces will be informed in your mind by the taste of the first piece and you won't notice the smell as much.

I didn't hold my nose at first taste and had no problem with it. My wife and I went to the Magsaysay fruit market where a fellow hacked one open with a bolo. We ate the pieces with forks and a bottle of water. I think she was as surpised as I was that I just popped a piece into my mouth. 

We have a durian tree in the yard so the fruit is available right now. I don't eat it as much as I used to because it now gives me heartburn.

One weird thing is that I like the smell of fresh durian but I find that the shakes, candies and the other things made from it stink.

[BrettGC]

I'm a bit weird, but you already knew that, but I actually like the smell.  Why?  Having spent much of my adult life in SE Asia I have many fond memories and in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore (back in the day), Brunei and of course The Philippines where those memories were made,  and many of those memories are evoked by the smell of that particular fruit.   Over the years I've acquired a taste for it, I can eat it without any trouble and whilst I don't ever really crave it, quite enjoy it.  I liken it to the first time as a young fella I first tasted whiskey or any other hard liquor; couldn't stand it to begin with but I now enjoy a good single malt.

Ironically, in Singapore and Malaysia where durian is everywhere, it's in those two countries where most motels ban it on their premises. 

[Jack Peterson]

Only one word, Nope Just the smell makes me reche as does the jack fruit 

[Kuya John]

Yeah, I just can't get passed the smell of Durian, Jackfruit I find OK, either way certainly wouldn't one to fall on my head.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Kuya John