May 26, 2010
Durian
We finally tried durian for the first time last night. The reputation of the fruit had been scaring us off. Finally, Stacy worked up the courage to buy some.
Durian is a tropical fruit that looks very strange. From the outside, it’s like a football with spikes all around it.
Once you open it, the fruit is very sweet, and has the soft, custard-like consistency of a very ripe banana or a sugar apple.
But the smell! Oh, my heavens, the smell.
Durian is the stinkiest fruit in the world. It’s impossible to describe the smell. Combine rotten milk with no-so-fresh fish, then add freshly-chopped onions and jasmine flowers, and you get the general idea.
There is a reason that Singapore has a law forbidding durians on the subway. I now understand and fully support this law.
When you eat it, it isn’t bad. As I wrote, it’s very sweet. But the sweetness is combined with a sharp bite, sort of like eating raw onions.
Ian and Evan each managed to take one bite, then declared that they had been there, done that, and had had enough.
We wrapped up the scraps in double-thick plastic garbage bags, but the whole apartment still stinks of durian. I can’t wait until the garbage truck comes tonight. Usually the boys grumble about taking out the garbage, but I guess that they will be happy to get this out of the apartment as quickly as possible today!