Spiky Stinky Fruit No More!
Ever since I was little, the sight of that spiky fruit sitting on the counter would make me cringe and quickly run the other way. Anyone from an Asian household has probably encountered this mysterious fruit. You either love it or extremely hate it.
The New York Times had a feature on the spiky fruit known as Durian. The Durian, is native to South Asia, and is most known for its pungent aroma and spiky outer shell.
“described by its detractors as smelling like garbage, moldy cheese or rotting fish. It is banned from many hotels, airlines and the Singapore subway.” By Thomas Fuller
To me, it smells like someone had puked. It’s just that bad to me. Durian is known to be one of the best tasting fruits in the world, but I can not get over its stinky smell. My parents would love buying the durian flavoured ice cream. They also would buy me my favourite (chocolate chip mint) but to their amusement it would both come in an unlabeled white container. It was always a 50/50 chance… I always lost.
Scientist Songpol Somsri has figured out how to genetically remove the smell from these fruits (Yay!). Now to figure out how to eliminate the wet bus smell…
Got any Durian stories to share? Leave a comment!
Followup Reading:
- Fans Sour on Sweeter Version of Asia’s Smelliest Fruit by Thomas Fuller (New York Times)
- Durian (Wikipedia)
gary and i and some friends went to lunch one day and had a whole conversation about how bad durian smells. my friend nixon even told me a story about how once his building got evacuated because of a “gas leak.” turned out it was just his co-worker who brought in durian! lol