Jackfruit is easy to get fresh from the asian market and is always awesome. Durian is always frozen when I’ve had it ~8 times. About half of those times it must have thawed and refrozen and smelled rough with a slimy texture. BUT, the other half of the time they were clearly frozen and transported properly and absolutely rocked. My son and I crushed a whole Durian in about 5 minutes.
I don’t think you can judge the fruit by a single try. You need to get a “good one” to really make up your mind about this fruit.
I can easily eat the whole jackfruit myself but I need to watch my weight .
When I was in Thailand in Nov, it was not a durian season so they were expensive. I bought them every time I saw them. Need to go back May - August but the weather sucks during those months.
Durian is fabulous. And jakfruit. I’d eat it everyday. I lived in Hawai’i back in the early 2000s and people were planting durian trees all over. It could be bought at the local farmer’s market. It was still expensive back then, about 20-30$ per fruit. I shipped a box of fresh seeds to a tropical fruit enthusiast in Puerto Rico (‘Sadhu’). Those seeds would be towering trees by now.
There are blue and red fleshed varieties also. And a smaller wild one called ‘Mountain Durian’.
There’s plenty of stellar jakfruit in Hawaii as well.
When my brother lived in the area he’d sometimes bring us some from an Asian market by him. I think we’ve also gotten some pretty good delivered from Weee!
Jack fruit usually available in most of Asian grocery stores
Some time only $1/pound in summer if you buy a whole fruit. Try to get the one not to firm so it ripen faster in room temperature. When you open it be sure apply some cooking oil to the knife and when everything done, warm it up above the stove then using napkin to clean all the sticky juice from fruit. Some inside has different color from light yellow to Orange red. I prefer deep yellow meat taste more flavorful to me. @murky
It took me until past 13 years old to be able to stand the smell of extreme sweaty ass mixed with vomit and a hint of someone who didn’t wipe well that decided to sit in the sun all day.
I’m allergic to jack fruit and i don’t know if it’s because my body automatically tries to reject it because it looks exactly like durian to me lol. Jack fruit tastes nice aside from the fact that i can’t breathe afterwards sometimes.
I tried durian 3 times in my life in my teenage years to see if it was worth the gag response and just so i can say i did… mushy raw, rotten fish is all i can say…
I bought a frozen durian from an Asian market 2 years back. Only me and my wife tried it, I would love to try it fresh one day. To me the flavor was not bad, it smelled like feet but didn’t taste like it. Also I’ve never had fresh jackfruit, but to me frozen jackfruit has a aftertaste of feet. Of course I would try it fresh.
It was a reasonable price to me, if I recall around $30 for a medium sized fruit
It wasn’t something I’d eat a whole fruit of, but was worth trying. Made me mad that my sister and her bf along with my parents didn’t want to even get near it. They have just heard how it smells, didn’t even want to smell it for themselves. People are weird haha
I have said it many times before that I love durian, not just like it. It is not for everyone. Some people don’t like its texture (like my husband). Others can’t stand the smell (like many of my American friends).
But I would not describe fruit that many, many people around the world like using derogatory terms. Maybe, some people try to be funny. Other may actually feel that way. There are sufficient English vocabulary (some are even fancy words) to describe taste and smell.
Maybe, I am too sensitive. I don’t call fruit other people like that it smells like vomit or tastes like feet. (I have never eaten feet, not even chicken feet, but I have vomited and it did not smell like durian). Just my 2 cents.
I think this could be true or you could be misunderstanding me if it’s directed at my comment. Maybe my “people are weird” but that was directed at people who don’t want to try new and interesting fruit (my family in that case) not those who regularly enjoy them.
I am sure you could describe a bad experience with a food item that many people globally eat which they would disagree with; but I can’t imagine being offended you don’t like something I do. For example I love cilantro, love it. Some people it tastes like soap, now I don’t invite them over for dinner, but I don’t feel a way about their taste buds differing from mine.
I enjoyed my durian experience and I plan to go out of my way to try a fresh one in the future. The frozen one wasn’t something I would eat often, but it wasn’t bad. I was simply saying it’s flavor was better than it’s smell.
I also don’t think it’s controversial to complain about durian since globally it’s basically banned from public spaces (airports, buses, transit etc).
“Tastes like foot” aftertaste of jackfruit to me isnt really a taste like foot, it’s hyperbole. But if it makes sense a taste like the smell of feet. People often say trifoliate tastes like gasoline and I doubt anyone is really drinking gas to associate the flavor. They simply mean it tastes like gas smells.
I love a lot of things which others don’t, it confuses me, but it doesn’t anger/upset me.
I don’t mean to target you. I speak in general as I have seen people in this forum over the years have described fruit (mostly exotic ones) they are not familiar with using derogatory terms.
To me, saying cilantro tastes like soap or Trifoliate taste like gasoline is fine. But when comparing the taste or smell of exotic fruit like durian, jackfruit, etc. using words like vomit, smelly feet, armpit, etc., it is not the hyperbole I care for. These fruit are food. I don’t care for people using those terms describing foods I (and many other) enjoy.
I tried dried durian once and found it unremarkable either good or bad. My family weren’t fans. That’s not much of a sample.
I’d say the fans get carried away calling it the king of fruits. Some people like all sorts of foods that many won’t touch with a 10 foot pole. It can’t be the king of fruits when it’s banned from public places and on the list of the world’s worst smelling foods. There are too many other fruits that few people hate and many rave about. I’ve never eaten a tropical fruit that would make my top 10 list. That includes mango. But it’s mostly about opportunity. I’ve had vastly more opportunity to try peak quality temperate fruits than tropical.
That’s just what it reminds me of and is probably one of the only fruits that has ever made me feel this way.
It may be offensive but the thing is, some of us can’t even stand being in the same room because of how offensive it is to our senses overall. Fact is, i still tried it and still gave it a few chances but it did take me years to be able to stand the smell. A lot of people in my family love it and we’re also from Thailand. I remember at every party, someone always brought it and it would clear the house except for the few who loved it. I physically could not stand it for years because the smell alone would make me gag. And this went on for years so this isn’t a new thing to me. So to some us that are even born into family’s that regularly eat this, we still can’t stand it.
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I absolutely love durian and jackfruit. When I was young, I remember my grandfather putting it in his coffee, a combination I didn’t care much for at the time. I also love other food that my kids don’t care for and tease me about, my response to that is the usual “Dont yuck on my yum”…lol
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