The durian is “the fruit of trees from the genus Durio belonging to the Malvaceae, a large family which includes hibiscus, okra, cotton, mallows, and linden trees” So begins the wikipedia article. Blah, blah, blah, who cares. Right?
Well, sometimes the peculiar hides right in plain sight. Further on in the article, there was some very interesting commentary on the taste of the durian. You see, the durian has a “distinctive” smell and taste. In favour, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace rapturously puts it this way,
The five cells are silky-white within, and are filled with a mass of firm, cream-coloured pulp, containing about three seeds each. This pulp is the edible part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. … as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed.
Others, however, are of a different opinion.
British novelist Anthony Burgess declares that consuming durian is “like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory.” That is positively mild compared to the opinion given by others. Travel and food writer Richard Sterling warns that “… its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away.” Still more, according to the wikipedia article, “Other comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs.”
Ugh.
Want to try some durian?
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