I bought this 13/lbs fruit at the Asian Market for $3/lb. It is creamy, rich, sweet, and fragrance fruit. Like Andrew Zimmer said earlier you love it or hate it. To me, it was very good. Try it and see what you think?
Tony
A friend of mine brought back a bag of Durian chips from Singapore when he was traveling a few years ago. They are as common there as potato chips are here in the states. I did not care for them. There was indeed a faint smell of vomit when opening the bag. I’m sure the fresh fruit tastes much different but there is no denying that many people are repulsed by the smell.
The soft pulpy middle of the fruit reminds me of the pictures I’ve seen of paw paw. As far as texture is concerned.
From what I’ve heard you won’t get my face near the stuff. There’s too many good fragrant fruits to be eating something that smells that bad.
My sister served in the Peace Corps in Malaysia. She told of people sitting up all night on benches to wait for their durians to fall, so no one else would get them. Apparently they didn’t pick them until they fell for some reason. She said they really smelled bad and she couldn’t understand what people saw in them.
Congratulations! You’ve won the durian fruit challenge by default.
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Nice try, Tony.
I convinced my better half to try it at an orchard in Thailand many moons ago. He said the smell was not that bad but he did not like the texture (too mushy for him). There are several varieties of durians. Some have stronger smell, some less. Some have softer (mushy), some firmer. I like them all but prefer firmer texture.
It pungent smell is the reason why hotels or airlines do not allow customers to bring durians in/on board. Durians are picked like any fruit, when they are about ripe, not when they drop. If you look at Tony’s picture, durian is a size of a football and many are bigger. Those spikes are sharp. You don’t want to be near the tree when they drop. They can cause injury. Many sellers wear gloves when they cut open durians for customers.
We grow up with it so we are used to it and many of us like it. It’s like people here growing up with cheese. I don’t like cheese at all and can’t stand any strong-smell cheese like parmesan or blue cheese. Parmesan cheese to me is like durian to many of you.
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This fruit is another acquired taste. And it is absolutely delicious-- once your tastebuds and olfactory nerves get fine-tuned to the sublime aromas and intense umami. I wouldn’t mind eating this everyday.
this truly is an equatorial fruit, and a botanical novelty if you’re up for a challenge–getting it to bear fruit in north america. Huge hurdle is, well, its size, reaching 100 feet tall. Will not tolerate cold feet, cold hands, or cold ears.
Tony…if I recall correctly, Andrew Zimmeran couldn’t eat it. For a guy like that (given the stuff he does eat, and even likes) to not be able to eat it says it all for me. My Filipina wife says everybody there likes it, but she said she was 100% certain that I wouldn’t. I heard people on TV say it smelled like stinking feet, and now I hear vomit odor…good grief. lol
It is cool looking though.
The first time I saw Durian was at an Asian market,piled high in a big box on the store floor.As a friend and myself gazed at these wonders,we asked a customer passing by about about them and she never really stopped,but just remarked,“You won’t like them.”
A couple of years later,I worked with a guy originally from Taiwan,who offered me some.Suffice it to say,for me,that lady was right.It smelled and tasted something like rotting garbage.The coworker asked me if I ever ate garbage before,lol.I’m a hater right now Tony.The sweet wasn’t there for me.
Here are a few funny pictures I found on the net. Brady
Apparently loves it
And,well,the picture says it all
Undecided?
He also won’t eat walnuts.
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no kidding? lol Maybe he’s allergic? For the love of God, he ate Balut and liked it. Makes me wanna puke just looking at it.
I’ve never tried a fresh one. We did buy one frozen at our Asian market several years ago. Everyone in the family tried it. It did not stink when thawed. The flavor wasn’t memorable to me. Nothing good or bad that got any of us excited. None of us has ever bought another just because it wouldn’t make much sense to pay a high price for something we found much less interesting than expected.
BradyBB,funny pictures 
I can tolerant the smell and the taste. Can’t say I like or hate it. However, I really like jackfruit which looks similar outside, different inside.
I have friends from Cambodia who introduced me and another friend to durian fruit. They were crazy about it! To me it has a strong gasoline smell, but if you ignore that the fruit taste is good. I never ate enough to get hooked. I once bought some durian cookies that had all of the smell but none of the taste–that didn’t work for me. But in my opinion, the fruit that smells like vomit is papaya. I like it okay in fruit salad but it smells like digestive enzymes, which it apparently contains in abundance because it’s the main ingredient in many natural digestive aids. Anyway, I’d give durian another try if I could have some without having to buy a whole fruit and cut it open. It ain’t pretty.
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Lizzy,
Durian here are shipped frozen so at least the texture is somewhat altered. To some, texture, esp. soft, mushy one is a turn-off, not the smell.
Like IL mentioned, If you have not tried jackfruit, that is a much more appealing fruit to try. It is really nice, both taste and fragrance. I think they ship jackfruit without freezing them. Each fruit is very large, up to 70-80 lbs. in Asian markets, sellers cut them up in sections and sell them that way. You get it as fresh as those do in a tropical country.
Please do not buy canned jackfruit. It is no comparison to fresh one.
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Okay,I talked to my old coworker friend who offered me my first taste of Durian and he said maybe the fruit wasn’t ripe.As a matter of fact,all of them that I’ve seen in markets are green and not brown like the one shown in Tony’s picture.
If that makes a difference,then I’m more like the last guy in the photos I posted and still am undecided.So,I’m still open to trying some again,before making a final decision.
I visit the coworker in Fremont,CA sometimes and maybe he can guide me to some better specimens. Brady
The problem is that all of the ones available in thye US are frozen. I have had fresh ones in Puerto Rico and really enjoy it. I actually don’t mind the smell anymore either. Just sucks that Hawaii and Puerto Rico are pretty much the only places in the US to get them fresh.
You can get it from local Asian market. I saw fresh ones in Hmart yesterday.
They aren’t really fresh. The whole fruit are shipped over frozen. A lot of the asian markets will tell you they are fresh. I’m not sure if it is a language barrier or what but I once had the lady tell me the ones in the freezer next to the frozen squid were fresh.
I had both frozen one (from Asian market) and fresh one (in Singapore ). I like them both, but my husband wouldn’t touch them.