Wednesday, April 16, 2008

What IS that smell?

Joe and I both love ethnic grocery stores. We must visit one at least once a month. I was in need of agar agar and had a feeling that I might find it cheaper at Ranch 99. I was right and while we were there we picked up some other non-essentials.
Joe had been fascinated with durians ever since we learned of them. I myself was sort of amazed at the price and curious about the first hand experiences I'd heard. Most of those experiences involved the telling of a horrid smell.

In times past the durians have been well over $40.00 and that is pricey for fruit in my book. Especially an experimental fruit experience. At this visit the durian was $.18 a pound. So, we snatched one up and paid around $6.
Slicing the durian open felt a bit like performing a cesarean c-section. Once the outside was split, I swear the innards looked like an alien fetus. I pulled out the inside and there are walnut sized seeds in the soft fruit. You have to pull those out. Then you turn and perform another c-section. I think there were 5 sections total.

While birthing the fruit there was a definite odor but it wasn't bad or overly strong. I was very smug in believing that the rest of the western world have been wusses when confronted with a druian. Yah, I'm now a wuss too.

We stored the soft, pudding like fruit in the fridge for a day. Upon opening the storage container my older child started screaming at me about the smell. The smaller child cried and ran when faced with the opportunity to taste.

Honestly, it doesn't really taste bad. It is very specific and not anything that I can describe. It is very creamy and pudding like. The taste lingers like there is no tomorrow. And it smells like rotten eggs with garlic.

Thus ends the telling of our durian experience. It is still sitting in my fridge waiting for my next victim. I have been enjoying broadening the horizons of any guests that have visited my home in the past few days. Jill, has that taste left your mouth yet?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've also been curious about durian ever since I first heard about it (FORTY DOLLARS???). Well, thanks for the heads up--think I may pass on this one. . . !!

Anonymous said...

OMG, *I* almost blogged about that disgusting thing. Usually a visit to your house means a sample of your amazing creations (like that cheesecake) but what the hell were you doing to me?! Ha ha!