Entry 9: Durian,The King of Fruits.

“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...” -British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace describing the taste of a durian, 1856


Randomly my parents decided to have durians and satay for a snack. I'm not a fan of the fruit for a number of reasons. It's a 'heaty' fruit, has a strong odour and tastes chemical- ish. Since its out of the blue I decided to have some, true enough it's chemical like flavours don't really appeal to me but it's once in a while so I couldn't bother.

The thing about the king of fruits are really funny. It's a green fruit with spikes. It takes usually abut 7 to 10 years for the plant to bear fruit, with the help of bats to pollinate it. (We have 2 durian trees which are over 10 years of age, I've been pestering for it to be cut down. Some plants apparently try their best to bear fruit when they are threatened. Probably the same way how some people say that your plants and flowers will grow better when you talk to them. It has yet to bear us any fruit. A durian tree is said to be extremely sensitive, once it is planted on the ground, it must  not be moved. The roots are very sensitive and the plant will die if  it gets moved too much.) When it is ripe the fruit will drop on its own, it can kill you if it falls on your head. The fruit may come in different colours from yellow, white and reddish pink. It ommits a strong smell that is hard to remove, hence it is banned from most places, especially hotels.

Ok that's facts, now with the funny part about them. Here are some traditional remedies passed down from the times of old.After eating durians, the smell may retain on our hands and having too much can make us unwell. Apparently the remains of the fruit (the husks) can help with the problem. Simply use the husk, but not the spiky part use the insides of it and run water from it to wash your hands, this apparently gets rid of the smell.

Resolving the heaty problem: Use a section of the husk and fill the shallow part with some salt and drinking water. By drinking this concoction it removes the 'heati-ness' from eating the durians.

Do you do the same when you eat durians? How do you get rid of the smell  Or possibly you dislike the fruit?
Do share your views if you please. I find durians an awfully weird fruit despite growing up knowing what it is. I still wonder why it's the king of fruits and the mangosteen is the queen. Strange, no?

Quote citation: http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Durian