Name: Durian
Brand: no stickers, definitely an import
Place of Purchase: Jung's Oriental Food Store, 1140 E 9th St, Des Moines, IA
Country/Region of Origin: probably Thailand or Vietnam
Price in Iowa: One small fruit cost me $20, but you still get a lot of fruit for that.
Description: It looks like a yellow-green football with spines. Inside, there is a creamy yellow, fibrous meat surrounding several large brown seeds.
Flavor: Very complex. The odor adds a sulfurous flavor similar to onion or garlic. The meat itself tastes like vanilla/almond custard. It is exquisitely sweet and creamy. There is also a meaty flavor underneath the sweetness.
Aroma: it depends on the fruit, but the riper it is the stinkier it is. It ranges from a hint of onion, to bad armpit body-odor, to refried rancid rat carcass with a gym sock garnish. Luckily, if you buy your fruit in the US it is typically frozen or chilled for shipping. This tends to kill much of the stronger aroma.
Texture: A combination of the fibrous aspects of squash mixed with creamy, pudding-like flesh in between the fibers.
Mouth-feel: Pudding, mousse, custard. So long as it's fresh. An older fruit will lose some of its moisture, and the flesh will lose its creaminess.
Notes: Durian is a love-it-or-leave-it fruit. Many people from Southeast Asia LOVE durian. In Asia, it is the best fruit you can get. They call it the King Fruit. Folks from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam grew up with fresh durian, durian cakes, durian jams, even durian chips.
You have to wonder how people got past the smell, though.
Fresh durian will scare away even the most adventurous epicure. Ripe off of the tree, it smells rotten to most people. The smell is so bad and so pervasive that you can't bring the fruit into public places.
Still, there are a lucky few (myself included) who don't recognize the taste of sulfur compounds as yucky. I love cabbage and brussel sprouts. I could eat garlic and onion all day long. It's a genetic defect, by it lets me enjoy stinky foods more than the average Joe. The same is the case with durian.
My suggestion is get a small one and a group of extreme friends and try it. If the stink wasn't a factor (and they have bred odor-free durian in Asia), it would be one of the most delicious and perfect foods you could ever eat. Not only is it a perfect combination of sweet and fat, but the protein that it contains is high in tryptophan. So, just like a turkey dinner, eating durian will increase your serotonin levels. This should give you a sugar buzz, followed by a calm sense of happiness and well-being. I like it a lot. I wouldn't eat it every day, but it is definitely worth one try.
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