Exotic fruits have been interesting to me in a while, and I hope to get my hands on some in my own country. For others interested, there's a channel which is all about exotic fruits and foods in general (including Thai ones), and his videos are always extremely informative and conscious[0].
I'm curious is aversion to durian is at least somewhat genetic, similar to cilantro and broccoli.
I spent 6 weeks traveling around Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam), including several days in Bangkok.
I ate a metric ton of durian, jackfruit (my favourite), mangostein, lychie, and so forth.
I never noted any negative durian odour, and I just assumed that "it must always be fresh in Southeast Asia", and any reports are based on stale or older fruit after it's travelled internationally...
I sometimes wonder if there's a genetic component affecting how people smell and taste durian, just like with cilantro. To me it's just a little stinky, like someone fried onions a couple hours ago and the smell is mostly faded, but the flavor is pure sweet creaminess.
As an example, once made a cup of durian coffee in a different room on a different floor entirely and someone stormed out of the building because of the odor. I didn't mention that I made it before that happened, so it wasn't just an exaggerated response. Nobody else could smell it. Not even I could smell anything beyond just plain old coffee.
I'm in this boat and my wife thinks I'm being fussy. The thought of cilantro wants to make me puke but no one ever seems to relate to it. The worst part is my native cuisine uses cilantro extensively.
She thinks it's a choice. For me, when I eat cilantro I really do feel like puking. There was a study that said cilantro tastes like soap to 10% of the population.
I think Durian hate is mostly memetic. Still, it is a very strong flavour, so even if you like it, it's easy to get overwhelmed by it. It doesn't have the easy eatability of mangosteen or lychee. And lord help you if you let out even a small burp hours after eating it...
I've got a friend in the Philippines who loves durian. It's her favourite fruit. she goes nuts for it. She'll eat a whole bag at once and still want more. Even there though, there's people who can't stand it. A lot of her friends and coworkers dislike it and complain when she eats it around them.
I liked durian icecream when I was there but I can't remember if I ate actual durian. I didn't mind the durian icecream but it did taste a bit like garlic icecream (which I have eaten in Gilroy) and jackfruit icecream mixed together.
No one has mentioned so far that there are many variety of durian, which has different smells. Another factor is how ripe the durian is. For example, probably anyone could eat a montong durian that's not too ripe. The kind and ripeness that is most popular seems to vary by country as well.
Yup. Thais tend to like their durians fairly fresh and not so stinky, while some Malaysians push them right to the edge of rotting. (The parallels to cheese are quite clear.)
Perhaps, but Thai people are _well_ aware of how bad it smells, just like the French are well aware of how bad a tasty cheese can smell. It’s eaten here despite the smell, not because they can’t smell it.
I've wondered that as well. I've always liked the smell of durian (as well as its taste), and have met others that do as well. Others seem to really hate it. I've always assumed that the vast majority of people hate the smell, but I'm actually not so sure now that I think about it. It might just be that the people who hate it are very vocal about it.
I once read a description of having durian as something like "eating vanilla while standing next to a trash heap" and I have to say that's stuck with me as fairly accurate. There's a good flavour with some pretty bad bits but over time you learn to ignore or even like them.
I quite like it, especially with dairy, but it seems to upset my stomach (durian burps aren't great).
Is work being done to develop easy to peel, low seed count cultivars of various exotic fruits like these? I can only imagine that their consumptive experience is similar to what Native Americans dealt with when they first encountered bananas tens of thousands of years ago.
As someone who grew up in southern India in a house literally surrounded by at least few dozens of these trees[1], most of them also hosting black pepper creepers, I wonder how this became Thai Fruit? Come on, we even have a western name!
The Durian isn't unique to Thailand either. None of the fruits in the article are, I'd wager. TFA even mentions a falling jackfruit injuring a man in Southern India.
Hard to find a fruit stall without it in Thailand, but I’ve not seen if for sale in my (much more limited) time in India. It’s a staple in Thailand, so maybe that’s the reason?
It depends on which part of India you're in, as well as the part of the city you're in. Jackfruit is definitely a staple in the South, and not so popular in the North. If you're in Bangalore, say, you're unlikely to find it in a supermarket; you'd have to go look for it in the right places.
The primary limiting factor in distributing these is not that they're hard to eat: pineapples are a pain too, but they're available everywhere, while many of the fruit listed (eg. rambutan, salak/snakefruit, langsat/duku) are trivial to peel.
Instead, it's simply that they don't transport well. Most tropical fruit available in the West are picked raw, kept refrigerated and chemically ripened on arrival, but this isn't possible for most of the fruit listed, certainly not mangosteens or langsat/duku.
Makes sense now, temperature - I was looking into it too much because I've seen in Farmers Almanacs schedules of planting&harvesting with lunar cycles because the gravitational pull is thought to assist essential growth phases.
I thought perhaps Thai farmers were also heeding Mercury alignment or retrograde to achieve a certain fruiting outcome (gravity from Mercury would be negligible compared to our Moon).
In a trip to central Washington, I bought a flat of Pluots (plum/apricot hybrids), and they were one of the most profound things I have ever eaten. So sweet and juicy, they almost burst like water balloons when you took a bite.
Less than four hours away from where they are grown, I have yet to find any varieties with the same magic available in grocery stores. They good ones are simply too delicate and too short lived.
It ends up being worth the trip every year to go when they are in season.
In Virginia we have pawpaw fruit that taste like custard, but must be eaten soon after picking since they bruise very easily and don’t store or ship well.
They are describing a fruit known in parts of the US as pawpaw and custard apple both. Never heard it called "sugar apple" but there are 2 different fruits known as custard apple so maybe you are thinking of a different one.
Whoah. Thanks for the warning. There's a squirrel that keeps trying to stash custard apples in my mother-in-law's planter in Thailand. They're tasty (and delivered by squirrels!), but I didn't know about the toxicity.
This is totally unrelated to this post, but the one I want to comment on (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22093297), I can't. I wonder if I could get a link to the pdf for The Priceless Gift by Cornelius Hirschberg? It's a very hard to find book :)
Flavor Queen and Flavour king varieties. I grow both at home and at the orchard.
More profound to me are the European gage plums and esp the lovely yellow mirabelles. I also planted medlars and can’t seem to find anyone interested. Medlar Jam is sublime.
> I also planted medlars and can’t seem to find anyone interested.
I made a medlar sorbet once, which was good but not great. But the single best scientific paper I have ever read is about the medlar. I happened across it on the new periodicals table at my college library, and had never seen anything like it. After reading it, I spent a long time thinking it might be satire, and that the fruit didn't actually exist. It was only years later that I finally had one. Summary and details of the paper here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177. Send me email if you'd like a copy and can't find access online.
Longan and papaya are pretty easy to find in New Orleans if you know where to look.
In the Indian subcontinent a common phrase is "the jackfruit is still on the tree and you've already put oil on your lips/mustache" meaning don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched.
Hilariously, in Singapore jackfruit is banned on public transport because it smells so awful. I tried some of this though and it it's not a flavor that I had tasted before. Hard to describe but really good if you could hold your nose for the smell.
Last year, staff at the University of Canberra library were forced to evacuate the building due to a suspected gas leak, but a search revealed the stench was in fact caused by the fruit.
That's what I've always associated the smell of durian with --- not stinking or rotting as others often say, but "gas leak". Not surprisingly, the same compound is responsible for both: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanethiol
Dragon fruit can be grown in California, Florida, and Hawaii and is not "bland mush with tiny seeds that can require floss to dislodge". The author must have had a bad one. They can be extremely sweet. The seeds are so small that they go down without noticing and I've never had to use floss. My favorite is a variety with deep red flesh.
Mangosteen is so far from its depiction---"to eat a pile of mangosteens is an exercise in disappointment"---that I wonder what kind of pile the author ate. In the US, imported mangosteens can run $20 a pound, so getting a few bad ones would be a disappointment. I suppose many vendors would issue a refund for the bad ones. But in Thailand a pile of mangosteens is so cheap that you wouldn't bother. They are exquisite, almost the fruit equivalent of ice cream (they taste better chilled). It's no wonder they call it the queen of fruits.
Durian likewise deserves its designation as king of fruits. Most people, myself included, are repulsed on the first encounter. But if you can get over the initial shock, you will enjoy the most flavorful fruit with custard-like texture. Its flavor can be described as a combination of many other fruit flavors with a complexity only matched by good coffee and dark chocolate.
Jackfruit is cheap and abundant in Mexican and Asian supermarkets in the US. The trouble is peeling and finishing a whole one. Some stores may sell wrapped pieces if you just want a taste. But if you have some guests and time to work with gloves and a knife, eating a whole jackfruit is a memorable experience.
Re: mangosteens, the author isn't saying mangosteens taste disappointing, they're saying that finding lots with the 'mustard blight' is disappointing.
If you can pick your own, though, they're in my experience pretty avoidable: go for ones that are purple, not black, and avoid any that have traces of yellow leaking from the top.
Yes, it's easy to avoid 'mustard blight' if you know how to choose. Also, don't choose rock-hard fruits. The middle should give a little when gently squeezed (squeezing too hard would split open the peel).
The other problem is lack of variety due to transportation problems. You're limited by what travels well, and when it's hard enough to get one type overseas without problems, you probably aren't sending multiple varieties.
A lot of people have heard by now that there are many interesting types of bananas overseas, but they don't travel well enough to reach other countries. The same goes for other fruits. I remember once reading about a durian that has nearly none of the repulsive flavours, but they just aren't common enough to send away from local markets (I think it was in Malaysia).
On the other hand though some fruits freeze decently well, durian is one of those. Especially if you're cooking with it the peeled pieces are great.
I've heard a lot about dragon fruit over the years and seen plenty of hype about it. I've been on what feels like a lifelong quest to find good dragon fruit, spread over many years and many countries, including throughout SE Asia. Somehow, it's all been just watery in flavor with the texture of soft watermelon.
I don't dislike Dragon Fruit but having had 30 or so of them in SE Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan) I've never had one that was "extremely sweet". All of them were relatively on the bland every place I had one. It's good to know they can be sweet but I'm curious why finding a sweet one is so rare.
As for the seeds I agree. It's like eating kiwi seeds.
Mangosteen is great! No idea why the author had so much hate.
Durian though ... well I've tried it about 7-8 times and I get that it "tastes" good but I still don't get it. For example in Singapore there is a chain of cream puff stores that carry durian and vanilla cream puffs. To my "unrefined" palette they taste 95% the same but one stinks so if I was to go again I'd choose the vanilla that doesn't stink vs the durian that does. I'm sure I'll try them again but I suspect my reaction will be the same. Tastes fine (like vanilla custard) but why put up with the stink when I can just have vanilla custard.
That said, last summer when I was in Malaysia was the first time the smell started not being so repelling so (a) I'm getting used to it (b) they were in season (c) like the cat virus they've reprogramed my brain :P
While my experience with dragonfruit are the same as yours, I've heard they can be sweet if allowed to fully ripen on the stem before harvest. This of course doesn't work for commercial production.
> I don't dislike Dragon Fruit but having had 30 or so of them in SE Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan) I've never had one that was "extremely sweet". All of them were relatively on the bland every place I had one. It's good to know they can be sweet but I'm curious why finding a sweet one is so rare.
Our experience is vastly different!
While not a fan of dragon fruit, I do eat it relatively often as my wife loves it. We usually buy pre-peeled pack at the super market when we visit.
For me it is definitely sweet. Not 'extremely' but it's definitely sweeter than a good banana or royal grape. Definitely not bland at all. I don't think I've had a non-sweet version in any of the countries you listed.
Edit: I just had a thought. I always eat Purple dragon fruit, not the white one. Maybe that's the difference.
I had both white and purple. I had hoped the purple would be sweeter but I never noticed a difference. It's hard to describe in words what how sweet something is but if I was to rank every fruit I've ever eaten in terms of sweetness Dragon Fruit would be at or near the bottom. I've have bland watermelon but I've had tons of sweet watermelon. I've bland other melons but I've had ton of sweet ones. I've never had a unsweet mango or an unsweet lychee or an unsweet mangosteen. I have had unsweet strawberries but mostly sweet ones.
Anyway, I'll keep trying dragon fruit hoping for a sweet one.
I think at the moment my favorite fruit I've had in SE Asia is cherimoya and I'm surprised they are not way more popular as they are so dang delicious! It's like someone made an apple
+ orange creamsicle fruit
They aren't very good. A lot of the time they are rock hard and if you let them rippen they don't turn out very good. Just used to Taiwan where it's always nice and soft and yummy.
I know that chain of puff stores. Their durian puffs are tasty, but I agree with you that the flavour is very mild. The thing about those puffs are that even people who normally don't like durian can appreciate them, and you may fall into that category.
There are different places you can get durian puffs where the filling is basically pure durian. Of course, unless you love durian you're not going to appreciate them.
100% with you: Durian pastries in Singapore are bland. Honestly, I haven't found pastry form of Durian that great, and I love, love, love durian since I was a kid (I'm Indonesian).
Keep in mind that there are over 200 varieties of Durian - some are even red inside, some sweet, some more pungent than others, different notes and textures. The best for me is Musang King variety in Malaysia, esp. when they get a slight alcohol after taste.
>Dragon fruit can be grown in California, Florida, and Hawaii and is not "bland mush with tiny seeds that can require floss to dislodge". The author must have had a bad one. They can be extremely sweet. The seeds are so small that they go down without noticing and I've never had to use floss. My favorite is a variety with deep red flesh.
I've been trying to find a good one in the states, so far no luck. I've only tried ones with the red flesh. The ones I had weren't bad, they were just flavorless. Not sweet at all. Kind of refreshing, but nothing special.
I'm a homebody but great fruit I will travel for. The absolute best fruit is ripened on the plant to the point of being so soft that it would be destroyed if handled. I drive hours to various wild blackberry bushes around Northern California and eat them right off the bush -- just the act of separating them from the bush basically splits them in half so they could never be sold commercially.
Another fun Thai fruit: ตะขบ (`da kop`), which are these tiny custard-like berries that literally spoil within hours after picking them. They make great shade trees, so you can often find them growing over a road in residential areas, and just pick a couple to eat on the spot. You'll never find them in a store, but they're a quintessential part of childhood here.
Yup, that's the same! Apparently the name has _farang_ in it since the tree isn't originally native to Thailand; Wikipedia says it's a transplant from Mexico, interestingly enough.
I live in Cambodia where all of these fruits are available, and more. I like every fruit mentioned, except salak, and eat many of them every day.
This author comes off as a deeply uncultured American giving a generic impression of a drunken 3-5 day visit to SEA. There are so many errors in this article it's unreal.
Jackfruit does not have a "jagged sheath" (that's durian).
Dragon fruit is only mushy when it's badly bruised or overripe, and there are other varieties that are sweeter and richer than the white variety.
Durian does not "stink of death".
Salak are normally imported from Indonesia, as far as I know. Maybe the author is thinking of salacca wallichiana, which is related but tastes very different?
Describing a langsat as a "demure cousin" of the lychee is a totally meaningless way of saying that they belong to the same order of plants.
And a purple one which has a sweeter and earthier taste, which is my favorite.
There are also many varieties of passion fruit, some of which are very sweet. One time I had a batch of an heirloom variety of yellow passion fruit from a small farm in the provinces and it really was unlike anything I've ever had since.
Well, when nations that grow durian natively have signs banning durian from public transport and hotels, it's probably a good indication that enough of a majority finds the smell unpalatable.
(I've tried durian in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to try to like them. I have failed. There is just no divorcing the taste from the stench.)
> Well, when nations that grow durian natively have signs banning durian from public transport and hotels, it's probably a good indication that enough of a majority finds the smell unpalatable.
What "majority" do you speak of?
The "majority" of locals in Singapore, at least, do not think the smell is unpalatable.
Locals just recognize that it is a strong, potent smell, that is difficult to get rid of, that lingers for ages, that is detectable even at trace concentrations. So, practically, everyone understands that durians shouldn't be in public transport or hotels.
It isn't necessary that the majority of the population hates it. Just a sizeable portion like 20% is enough.
Also the puzzling thing is the stark disparity of the perception of the smell between different people. That doesn't happen to, say, seeing. This is akin to having a dress where half the people says it's black while the rest say it's white.
My parents love durian, but even they have rules against eating it inside. So those signs aren’t related to it being “unpalatable”. It’s just that the smell is so strong that it lingers around like strong perfume. For example, I love curry but don’t cook it at home because the essential oils released makes my home smell for days.
I think I have not had good dragon fruit yet. That's the trouble with trying new fruit you see in the market - you never know if it is a good representative.
Try yellow dragon fruit. It is much better than red or white and it is a different species. Red/white taste grassy with a nice texture, but yellow has a sweet tropical flavor.
never in my life i had mushy dragon fruit and ate it multiple times a week when lived in Asia for years, i like it cooled from fridge
I've never understood what's even stinky about durian, it just has its own odor like any other fruit, nothing deserving special treatment media give it, must be some durian wholesalers conspiracy trying to make it more interesting than it actually is
For hundreds of years people have been describing it as smelling like various unpleasant things, like rotten onions, rotten meat, pig feces, socks, etc.
In some countries where the fruit grows you aren't allowed to eat it in public in enclosed spaces, such as public transportation.
Some people hate the smell of roses. My wife can't stand the smell of honeysuckles but to me its one of the most pleasant smells in the world. Perhaps Durian smells good to some people. Its obviously got a controversial fragrance that many people find unpleasant. Its hardly a modern day media conspiracy.
YMMV, but I find that the taste of salak varies wildly. Sometimes they're mealy, dry, astringent and generally unpleasant. Sometimes they're crisp and tart like a tropical apple, and thoroughly delicious.
They are imported here, so that must be it. I have tried them many times, because the skin is so cool, but yeah they were always so dry and never tart.
Author is probably being unnecessarily hyperbolic in order to make the piece interesting.
To me, dragon fruit flesh is similar to that of Asian pears, firm, crisp, sweet and refreshing. The tiny black seeds are akin to strawberry seeds in that they add to the texture but are otherwise unnoticeable.
I had my first taste of a dragon fruit a couple of years ago on a Cathay Pacific flight (amazing inflight meals btw) and was like where have you been my whole life. I knew I had to get some when I returned to the US. I quickly learned that most grocery stores in US do carry them... for about $6 per lb. They’re not cheap treats.
It does stink to some (many?) people, much the same way some people think that cilantro tastes like soap. Which is why you see "no durian" stickers in public places throughout Asia.
It's called Hyperbole and it's generally accepted in everyday speech and travel writing. Also, don't assume that you know how it smells to other people. You don't.
It is a hyperbole; that's exactly the point that 3131s is making. It is a (quite extreme) exaggeration, and therefor factually not correct.
I might indeed make some assumptions about smell. Though having smelled both durian and rotting carcasses on multiple occasions, I find it unlikely that there are people that would find durian as repulsive as rotting meat. The smell of death literally turns your stomach (and makes you vomit in extreme cases). I've never heard someone throwing up from the smell of durian.
Sounds like you're the one spreading lies. Durian is without a doubt, the smelliest, nastiest fruit I have ever had the displeasure of ever smelling or eating in my life. My wife is from SEA and literally laughed out loud when I showed her your post.
Check yourself before you try to check others.
I'm sure there are differences in how people perceive durian, among other foods. Most Cambodians don't have a particular aversion to durian though and it's definitely popular at the market, but sometimes you see it prohibited in touristy guesthouses and restaurants.
Yes, exactly ! I remember traveling through Asia and seeing a “no durians” sign posted near the metro entrance. I forget the country, but it was probably Singapore or HK.
Hannah Beech has been an SEA bureau chief at the NYT and, before that, Time Magazine for something like a decade, and wrote for Time Asia for years prior to that. I don't think "deeply uncultured American" helped your argument, and note that most of the fruit-related points you made here were challenged downthread.
I wasn't wrong about anything. Durian does not smell like death, even to people that don't like it. I know people can perceive tastes differently.
My tone was too flippant because I found the article's tone annoying and misleading. I get it, hyperbole, but when most of the people reading it have no familiarity with these fruits it's going to put them off trying.
I wouldn't want to litigate durian, as I am too chicken to try it. I have general sympathy for fruit enthusiasts and am inclined to believe you about their virtues. Good on you for acknowledging the hyperbole; I just thought the background would help.
I once went to a durian place in Malaysia. As we approached (they hadn't told me where we were going, it was a surprise), my first thought from the smell was that perhaps there was an animal dead off the side of the road.
These are all pretty easy to find in Los Angeles, New York, and the Bay. How many other things do you see if you actually venture to SE Asia?
Central America has all kinds of things that I never see here, eg. canistel or black sapote, as well as variants of mango, corn, and banana that don't sell in the US.
There are many more varieties, as you said. I am literally about 100 meters from maybe 5-6 varieties of bananas and 10-12 varieties of mangoes. There are 4 varieties of dragon fruit here too, all excellent.
The cheaper varieties of mangoes are similar to what Americans are familiar with, but much more consistent. Mangoes grow so readily here that in season I can get a kilo for $0.25 and they're always perfectly ripe. There is a more expensive variety that is purely sweet and has a more gelatinous texture, and it feels "decadent" in the same way that a rich chocolate cake does.
The bananas are way better, especially some of the smaller varieties that have a thicker consistency. There are cart vendors everywhere here that grill those small bananas and sell them on sticks.
And then there are many others in the markets, a lot of which don't have common names in English but all of them are great really. It's so cheap that in my diet I eat fruit instead of rice or bread as a carbohydrate source. Even most imported fruits are pretty reasonably priced, so you can still easily find things like apples, champagne grapes, cherries, etc.
I can buy Pomelo at fruit shops and at least one fruit stall in the middle of a mall here in Southampton, UK. It's strange what travels to some places and not others.
I bought one a few years ago and was disappointed at the small amount of grapefruit-ish flesh, not realising how people actually eat them (candied peel and pith) in parts of Asia.
Actually one reason we may see Pomelo here is that the universities in this city attract a lot of Chinese students, and there are a number of shops and restaurants that have sprung up to cater for them.
How it's eaten does seem to vary by country. I've never tried the pith either, but would like to sometime!
unpopular opinion - durian is overrated, I don't get what's so special about it, even the smell is not really that big, people must have fancy noses if they think it's particularly smelly, some European cheeses are way more (unpleasantly) smellier
my favorite of exotic fruit is dragon fruit - looks nice, easy to consume with spoon, good flavor
Jackfruit is one of the most nutritious and colon healthy vegetable on the planet. It is full of healthy fiber and keeps you feeling full long after unlike other vegetables. Many families in South india cosume lot of jackfruit in the season. https://thejackfruitcompany.com/jackfruit-101/
Thai durian is nothing when compared to the smell and taste of Malaysian durian.
I love durian but the smell can be overpowering. I left a few in my car for an afternoon, parked in an underground garage, to bring to my family after work. I had to drive with the windows down for 2 weeks.
153 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 208 ms ] thread[0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChsbD6Clp-ZPqKwXJR3V7DQ
Sad I missed the fruit market though, I bet they have a massive variety of banana cultivars. I tried a couple I'd never had before when over there.
I spent 6 weeks traveling around Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam), including several days in Bangkok.
I ate a metric ton of durian, jackfruit (my favourite), mangostein, lychie, and so forth.
I never noted any negative durian odour, and I just assumed that "it must always be fresh in Southeast Asia", and any reports are based on stale or older fruit after it's travelled internationally...
As an example, once made a cup of durian coffee in a different room on a different floor entirely and someone stormed out of the building because of the odor. I didn't mention that I made it before that happened, so it wasn't just an exaggerated response. Nobody else could smell it. Not even I could smell anything beyond just plain old coffee.
I'm curious about the phrasing here; as far as I can see, that's what "being fussy" means.
This can't be uncommon, given the prevalence of rules against Durian consumption in enclosed public spaces in many places in the far east.
Love me some mangostein, lychie, rambutan or snake-fruit though.
Durian, to me, tastes like garlic soaked in petrol (“gas” for the Yanks).
Hotels and public transport in Thailand don't ban it for no reason.
The smell still gets everywhere, and lingers for a bit.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/aversion-...
I quite like it, especially with dairy, but it seems to upset my stomach (durian burps aren't great).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit
Aussies are trying this bullshit right now with a Bolivian fruit called achachairu. See how this entire article calls it a made up name. And this is supposed to be a news website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2014-06-19/gallery-achacha...
As for me, while there's certain fruit I do like a lot, I'm far less willing to put in the effort and often I just don't bother.
Instead, it's simply that they don't transport well. Most tropical fruit available in the West are picked raw, kept refrigerated and chemically ripened on arrival, but this isn't possible for most of the fruit listed, certainly not mangosteens or langsat/duku.
Mercury is not capitalized here, which makes a huge difference. In assuming astrological Mercury, not somehow the element?
It's been decades since mercury thermometers were common for the average person. We'll need to update our idioms!
I thought perhaps Thai farmers were also heeding Mercury alignment or retrograde to achieve a certain fruiting outcome (gravity from Mercury would be negligible compared to our Moon).
In a trip to central Washington, I bought a flat of Pluots (plum/apricot hybrids), and they were one of the most profound things I have ever eaten. So sweet and juicy, they almost burst like water balloons when you took a bite.
Less than four hours away from where they are grown, I have yet to find any varieties with the same magic available in grocery stores. They good ones are simply too delicate and too short lived.
It ends up being worth the trip every year to go when they are in season.
Do you mean pawpaw, or custard apple (aka sugar apple in the US)?
To eat cut in half and eat with a spoon. So good.
I planted a three variety pack 5ish years ago and got a lot last year. Safely a late freeze mostly got them this year
It's called custard apple in my country. We call papaya, pawpaw.
Any discussion of fruit needs to use their botanical names since they're called different things in different places.
Downside; they all contain annonacin, which may cause Parkinsons. [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annonacin
I really appreciate your contribution. Thanks.
Apparently they don't travel or keep well, so supermarkets almost never stock them.
Try it. You won't regret it.
More profound to me are the European gage plums and esp the lovely yellow mirabelles. I also planted medlars and can’t seem to find anyone interested. Medlar Jam is sublime.
I made a medlar sorbet once, which was good but not great. But the single best scientific paper I have ever read is about the medlar. I happened across it on the new periodicals table at my college library, and had never seen anything like it. After reading it, I spent a long time thinking it might be satire, and that the fruit didn't actually exist. It was only years later that I finally had one. Summary and details of the paper here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177. Send me email if you'd like a copy and can't find access online.
In the Indian subcontinent a common phrase is "the jackfruit is still on the tree and you've already put oil on your lips/mustache" meaning don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched.
Star fruit are one of my favorites. Kind of a crunchy, tart apple flavor.
Jackfruit is amazing too though. It's used a lot as a "meat" substitute. For example, jackfruit curry is delicious, nutritious and hearty.
Jackfruit and palm fruit in curries are some of my favorites.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/europe/durian-germany-evacuat...
That's what I've always associated the smell of durian with --- not stinking or rotting as others often say, but "gas leak". Not surprisingly, the same compound is responsible for both: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanethiol
Mangosteen is so far from its depiction---"to eat a pile of mangosteens is an exercise in disappointment"---that I wonder what kind of pile the author ate. In the US, imported mangosteens can run $20 a pound, so getting a few bad ones would be a disappointment. I suppose many vendors would issue a refund for the bad ones. But in Thailand a pile of mangosteens is so cheap that you wouldn't bother. They are exquisite, almost the fruit equivalent of ice cream (they taste better chilled). It's no wonder they call it the queen of fruits.
Durian likewise deserves its designation as king of fruits. Most people, myself included, are repulsed on the first encounter. But if you can get over the initial shock, you will enjoy the most flavorful fruit with custard-like texture. Its flavor can be described as a combination of many other fruit flavors with a complexity only matched by good coffee and dark chocolate.
Jackfruit is cheap and abundant in Mexican and Asian supermarkets in the US. The trouble is peeling and finishing a whole one. Some stores may sell wrapped pieces if you just want a taste. But if you have some guests and time to work with gloves and a knife, eating a whole jackfruit is a memorable experience.
If you can pick your own, though, they're in my experience pretty avoidable: go for ones that are purple, not black, and avoid any that have traces of yellow leaking from the top.
A lot of people have heard by now that there are many interesting types of bananas overseas, but they don't travel well enough to reach other countries. The same goes for other fruits. I remember once reading about a durian that has nearly none of the repulsive flavours, but they just aren't common enough to send away from local markets (I think it was in Malaysia).
On the other hand though some fruits freeze decently well, durian is one of those. Especially if you're cooking with it the peeled pieces are great.
As for the seeds I agree. It's like eating kiwi seeds.
Mangosteen is great! No idea why the author had so much hate.
Durian though ... well I've tried it about 7-8 times and I get that it "tastes" good but I still don't get it. For example in Singapore there is a chain of cream puff stores that carry durian and vanilla cream puffs. To my "unrefined" palette they taste 95% the same but one stinks so if I was to go again I'd choose the vanilla that doesn't stink vs the durian that does. I'm sure I'll try them again but I suspect my reaction will be the same. Tastes fine (like vanilla custard) but why put up with the stink when I can just have vanilla custard.
That said, last summer when I was in Malaysia was the first time the smell started not being so repelling so (a) I'm getting used to it (b) they were in season (c) like the cat virus they've reprogramed my brain :P
Our experience is vastly different!
While not a fan of dragon fruit, I do eat it relatively often as my wife loves it. We usually buy pre-peeled pack at the super market when we visit.
For me it is definitely sweet. Not 'extremely' but it's definitely sweeter than a good banana or royal grape. Definitely not bland at all. I don't think I've had a non-sweet version in any of the countries you listed.
Edit: I just had a thought. I always eat Purple dragon fruit, not the white one. Maybe that's the difference.
Anyway, I'll keep trying dragon fruit hoping for a sweet one.
I think at the moment my favorite fruit I've had in SE Asia is cherimoya and I'm surprised they are not way more popular as they are so dang delicious! It's like someone made an apple + orange creamsicle fruit
It's one of my wifes favourite fruits, but we can't find good one in Singapore.
To choose a dragonfruit, pick the ones where the "leaves"/"tips" aren't dried out, feel heavy/full and slightly firm.
There are different places you can get durian puffs where the filling is basically pure durian. Of course, unless you love durian you're not going to appreciate them.
Keep in mind that there are over 200 varieties of Durian - some are even red inside, some sweet, some more pungent than others, different notes and textures. The best for me is Musang King variety in Malaysia, esp. when they get a slight alcohol after taste.
I've been trying to find a good one in the states, so far no luck. I've only tried ones with the red flesh. The ones I had weren't bad, they were just flavorless. Not sweet at all. Kind of refreshing, but nothing special.
https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%82%E0...
This author comes off as a deeply uncultured American giving a generic impression of a drunken 3-5 day visit to SEA. There are so many errors in this article it's unreal.
Jackfruit does not have a "jagged sheath" (that's durian).
Dragon fruit is only mushy when it's badly bruised or overripe, and there are other varieties that are sweeter and richer than the white variety.
Durian does not "stink of death".
Salak are normally imported from Indonesia, as far as I know. Maybe the author is thinking of salacca wallichiana, which is related but tastes very different?
Describing a langsat as a "demure cousin" of the lychee is a totally meaningless way of saying that they belong to the same order of plants.
Also dragon fruit is a 'bland mush'? I've must have been eating the wrong fruit. There's also a red dragon fruit which is a little tastier.
There are also many varieties of passion fruit, some of which are very sweet. One time I had a batch of an heirloom variety of yellow passion fruit from a small farm in the provinces and it really was unlike anything I've ever had since.
Durian smell is more than disgusting to me - but sometimes I do enjoy eating it. Often by holding my breath to avoid inhaling it.
(I've tried durian in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to try to like them. I have failed. There is just no divorcing the taste from the stench.)
What "majority" do you speak of?
The "majority" of locals in Singapore, at least, do not think the smell is unpalatable.
Locals just recognize that it is a strong, potent smell, that is difficult to get rid of, that lingers for ages, that is detectable even at trace concentrations. So, practically, everyone understands that durians shouldn't be in public transport or hotels.
Also the puzzling thing is the stark disparity of the perception of the smell between different people. That doesn't happen to, say, seeing. This is akin to having a dress where half the people says it's black while the rest say it's white.
I've never understood what's even stinky about durian, it just has its own odor like any other fruit, nothing deserving special treatment media give it, must be some durian wholesalers conspiracy trying to make it more interesting than it actually is
Me too, more so than for other fruits. Maybe that has to do with all the water content.
In some countries where the fruit grows you aren't allowed to eat it in public in enclosed spaces, such as public transportation.
Some people hate the smell of roses. My wife can't stand the smell of honeysuckles but to me its one of the most pleasant smells in the world. Perhaps Durian smells good to some people. Its obviously got a controversial fragrance that many people find unpleasant. Its hardly a modern day media conspiracy.
To me, dragon fruit flesh is similar to that of Asian pears, firm, crisp, sweet and refreshing. The tiny black seeds are akin to strawberry seeds in that they add to the texture but are otherwise unnoticeable.
I had my first taste of a dragon fruit a couple of years ago on a Cathay Pacific flight (amazing inflight meals btw) and was like where have you been my whole life. I knew I had to get some when I returned to the US. I quickly learned that most grocery stores in US do carry them... for about $6 per lb. They’re not cheap treats.
It does stink to some (many?) people, much the same way some people think that cilantro tastes like soap. Which is why you see "no durian" stickers in public places throughout Asia.
I might indeed make some assumptions about smell. Though having smelled both durian and rotting carcasses on multiple occasions, I find it unlikely that there are people that would find durian as repulsive as rotting meat. The smell of death literally turns your stomach (and makes you vomit in extreme cases). I've never heard someone throwing up from the smell of durian.
We all know when we see hyperbole, but we learned even less from the terce "refutal". That was my point, as well as "nitpicking".
Sounds like you're the one spreading lies. Durian is without a doubt, the smelliest, nastiest fruit I have ever had the displeasure of ever smelling or eating in my life. My wife is from SEA and literally laughed out loud when I showed her your post. Check yourself before you try to check others.
I'm sure there are differences in how people perceive durian, among other foods. Most Cambodians don't have a particular aversion to durian though and it's definitely popular at the market, but sometimes you see it prohibited in touristy guesthouses and restaurants.
My tone was too flippant because I found the article's tone annoying and misleading. I get it, hyperbole, but when most of the people reading it have no familiarity with these fruits it's going to put them off trying.
Durian's spikes are pointier, but you can call both of them jagged.
I once went to a durian place in Malaysia. As we approached (they hadn't told me where we were going, it was a surprise), my first thought from the smell was that perhaps there was an animal dead off the side of the road.
Tasty though.
I don't know when the branding changed but I'm willing to bet some form of biopiracy was involved in the trade.
Central America has all kinds of things that I never see here, eg. canistel or black sapote, as well as variants of mango, corn, and banana that don't sell in the US.
The cheaper varieties of mangoes are similar to what Americans are familiar with, but much more consistent. Mangoes grow so readily here that in season I can get a kilo for $0.25 and they're always perfectly ripe. There is a more expensive variety that is purely sweet and has a more gelatinous texture, and it feels "decadent" in the same way that a rich chocolate cake does.
The bananas are way better, especially some of the smaller varieties that have a thicker consistency. There are cart vendors everywhere here that grill those small bananas and sell them on sticks.
And then there are many others in the markets, a lot of which don't have common names in English but all of them are great really. It's so cheap that in my diet I eat fruit instead of rice or bread as a carbohydrate source. Even most imported fruits are pretty reasonably priced, so you can still easily find things like apples, champagne grapes, cherries, etc.
Dragonfruit exists mostly as a frozen smoothie ingredient, although you can get it seasonally as well.
Lychee is somewhat available seasonally, longan never or almost never.
And I've never seen a Pomelo outside of SE Asia.
I bought one a few years ago and was disappointed at the small amount of grapefruit-ish flesh, not realising how people actually eat them (candied peel and pith) in parts of Asia.
How it's eaten does seem to vary by country. I've never tried the pith either, but would like to sometime!
my favorite of exotic fruit is dragon fruit - looks nice, easy to consume with spoon, good flavor
I love durian but the smell can be overpowering. I left a few in my car for an afternoon, parked in an underground garage, to bring to my family after work. I had to drive with the windows down for 2 weeks.