Last week, my American friend Clayton and I decided to undertake "The Durian Challenge!". The challenge here was to eat some durian, referred to in Singapore as "the king of fruits". First, some background on the durian.
Here is what the durian looks like:
It's a tropical fruit that is in season in Singapore from about June to August. When it's in season, people go crazy! They sell it in all the markets and grocery stores, most often already removed from the spiny outer part. I don't understand why, but wherever they are selling it, there is always a guy who stands there and yells out to people about how great his durian is and that they should buy it over all others. This makes sense in the big fruit markets, but I don't understand why they also do it in the grocery stores. Just now I attempted to google 'durian caller' but got no useful results, so I guess the mystery will stay unsolved for now.
Durian is SMELLY. When I first got to Singapore, I would be walking around and suddenly smell this horrible stench and wonder what had died and rotted to produce such a horrible smell. I soon learned that this was the durian I was smelling. The smell is so bad that durians are banned from buses and trains (see: my last post) as well as most hotels.
Since people in Singapore LOVE durians, when they meet someone who is not from Singapore, they will of course ask them if they have tried durian. Clayton and I, tired of hearing this question, decided to finally try it. We bought some durian at the marketplace:
You can see that is has some slimy looking flesh around a really big seed. With all the windows open and the fan on in my apartment, we got ready to try. Here is Clayton looking excited for his first bite.
It was pretty horrible. The taste is similar to the smell but not as strong. The basic taste is like that of a banana or other fruit that has gone bad, but it also has some weird undernotes. The texture is really strange also - slimy and mushy but also sort of fibrous and stringy. We decided that the texture was most like a half-way cooked sweet potato. The taste we are still at a loss for an analogy - it's just that horribly unique. If you want a laugh, check out the section of the wikipedia entry for durian where they include quotes from people trying to describe the taste.
People in Singapore swear that you have to try the durian five times before you will like it. Clayton tried to go for a second round, but didn't even make it through that. So, the five times strategy is probably out. But, now we can at least say that we tried it, and it is definitely the weirdest food I have ever eaten.
Cool!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you tried it and that it was all documented here for everyone to read! haha I love that it's awful. Maybe over the course of the year you'll be able to try it 3 1/2 more times. I am excited to see if you like it after that!
durians, like all fruits, are inherently evil.
ReplyDeleteHey Lauryn--
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like natto, which are fermented soy beans. The Japanese are all ga ga about natto, and now they've rooked me into agreeing to eat it if I go there. Apparently they eat this stuff for breakfast. Seriously--fermented soy beans. That just sounds rank. But who knows?
ps--word verification is Pubie--heeeee!
"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."
ReplyDelete-Alfred Russel Wallace
Not exactly your experience?
are you ready for round two Lauren?! :)
ReplyDelete