Hi all 🙂

As mentioned in an earlier post, the durian fruit of South-East Asia deserves it’s own special post!

So here’s what it looks like in it’s natural form … fairly innocuous you would think, non?But when you open the shell, that’s when it hits you. The most dreadful, disgusting smell I’ve ever encountered. To me, it’s a cross between the worst body odour mixed with the smell of a dead rotting animal that’s still farting once it’s decayed. You can read other people’s description of this unique smell in this wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian OMG!!! It’s so bad, there’s even signs in most hotel rooms saying “No Durian”!Inside, the flesh is thick and stringy … almost like the texture of an avocado, but much bulkier.

If you can get it past your nose, I have to admit the taste is not that bad. I could only get through a small taste off a forkful – the texture (think decomposing stringy meat) and the smell did me in, but it tasted sweet and surprisingly delicious with a wonderful aftertaste. It’s mainly a winter food as it raises your body temperature when eaten, or in the summer in makes you sweat more. But not a good idea if you are older in age as this could cause heart and blood pressure issues.

All this being said, there are many, many people (my travel companion Marc for one) who crave this fruit with a passion. (Note the evil look on his face in the first photo as he offered me some more :-p)Not everyone’s “cup of tea”, but definitely worth a try once in your life 🙂

Namaste,

Abbey