I will, for the most part, try anything once. It is a fundamental part of that hedonistic lifestyle, doing things that please me, and trying new things pleases me immensely. Today, a coworker brought in a Durian, a south-east Asian fruit, the 'king of all fruits' that is not for the faint of heart.
For one it is large, enormous if you will, fully mature they are over 5lbs per fruit. Apparently, death by durian is not uncommon as the fruits fall from as high as 100 feet tall trees when they are ripe. It has a thick and spiny husk, rather echidna or hedgehog-like if you ask me.
The smell would easily scare off the unadventurous. It smells like rotting garbage to put it simply, and the potent aroma filled my work space for a number of hours. Good thing I had
clerid beetle samples in aromatic alcohol to work on to cleanse the odor from my nose. I wonder how you can tell when this fruit starts to spoil?
The moment the velvety pale yellow flesh hits your lips, you instantly forget about the odor. It has the texture of custard, maybe a little thicker, but it is creamy and buttery. There are notes of vanilla and almond flavors. I wouldn't exactly call it sweet either because the flavor that lingers in the mouth is that of mild sweet onions with a hint of garlic, almost like a mild cream cheese. It is very lightly sweet and savory at the same time.
I wouldn't recommend purchasing this fruit, unless you had a crowd to share it with. Even with everyone at work eating some, there is still the other half of the fruit sitting in the work fridge for tomorrow. I'm going to bring some home for Mark to try.
Darwin said of this fruit, 'May your worst enemies be forced to feed on it,' continued along with a quasi limerick conversation with Alfred Russel Wallace in the journal
Horticulture published in 1973:
Wallace cried in response: 'It's delicious!
Darwin: 'I'm suspicious, for the flavor is scented
Like papaya fermented,
After a fruit-eating bat has pee'd on it'
Apparently the equally enormous seeds can be roasted and eaten like nuts. They are soft and my thinking is that they will have the texture of roasted chestnuts, I might have to experiment with this and bring one home tomorrow.