Durian in SE Asia
Durian, sometimes called the King of Fruit, is a mainly found in SE Asia, This soccer ball sized fruit is normally loved or hated; loved by the locals and hated by westerners. Durian has a reputation, a stinky one. The fruit is so stinky that it’s banned from public places in Singapore. However since Vietnam rarely has rules, there’s no banning here – eat it, sell it, and transport it whereever you want!
Vietnam Market
Walk around the markets and they’ll have the familiar smell of durian wafting through them. It’s not a pleasant smell; I think it smells of rotten eggs, however after prolonged exposure to the once foreign small, I’ve become tolerant of it now.
Durian is like the superhero of fruit. Not only does durian have a protective smell force-field, but it also has a protective armor force-field. A pointy, hard outer layer makes it hard to even carry.
Luckily I had help on my durian adventure, I went with my good friends Lee and Tuyet, a lovely Vietnamese/American couple who has befriended me and agreed to show me the wonderful foods of Vietnam. We went to the local market to pick up food for a Vietnamese feast; including durian. The market trip was great; smelly, chaotic, motorbike flooded, and sweaty…a true local Vietnamese market. Lee and Tuyet stopped at their regular stalls; the vegetable lady, the shrimp lady, the fish lady, and the fruit lady. Plus, we stopped and picked up a few lotus flowers too so they could have me try the seeds…yum! I love to explore markets and new foods; and it’s even more fantastic when you have people with you that can speak the language!
We brought our bags of fresh produce home and before we started preparing and cooking the feast, we decided to have a snack to tide us over. Tuyet could hardly wait to have some durian – no better time than the present I guess.
Opening a Durian
She showed me how to open the durian without getting impaled by its armor. Once I got the crack started, it pulled apart easily. Strangely I didn’t notice the repulsive smell that much; I was focused on not impaling myself I guess. Sure, it’s not lilacs, but it’s not a terrible smell to me any longer; proving that you can get used to anything with enough time.
Since I felt as if I had gotten past the smell issue, I thought the eating part would be a breeze – that is until we broke open the durian and exposed the fruit inside. It looked like an internal organ of some kind, a yellow liver. Silence of the Lambs came to mind; fava beans anyone?. All of a sudden it didn’t look too terribly appetizing! I was once again reminded that the brain is such a powerful thing. Just seeing shape of the fruit gave me a negative reaction. Tuyet showed me how to gently get the fruit out of it’s protective armor; careful use of a spoon to scoop it out delicately. To my surprise it was then that I realized that the fruit did not have a solid consistency; instead it was delicate and mushy….like really soft butter.
Eating Durian
I tried a bite and was surprised; it wasn’t what I was expecting. The smell didn’t get me, but the consistency did. It was sort of like eating creamy frosting that had a vegetable and fruit taste at times. I saw one description of it on the Internet as “French custard passed through a sewer”. That seems a little extreme, but I think you get the point. The taste seemed to change in my mouth as I ate it which I wasn’t too nuts about. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t necessarily like it either. Lee and Tuyet laughed at me as I analyzed each bite.
I eventually got through the liver-sized creamy frosting concoction and it did seem to get better as I ate more. Maybe my brain eventually switched off and I just ate instead of thinking about what I was eating.
The rest of the afternoon was spent cooking up a massive meal of fresh fish with mushrooms and chili, shrimp cooked in coconut milk, and clams in lemon grass and coconut followed by more fresh fruit for dessert. It was a Vietnamese feast! It never ceases to amaze me what can be produced out of a small, simple Vietnamese kitchen with 2 gas burners. One of my favorite things about the Vietnamese culture is cooking and food is a social process; similar to cooking food in Italy. Everyone joins in, it takes hours of preparation, and it’s more of a social gathering.
Vietnamese Lunch
As I sat on the floor and cleaned vegetables and talked to Lee and Tuyet about their lives in Vietnam, it was no different than sitting in a bar with friends drinking a cosmopolitan in NYC. The process of spending a whole morning from 7AM to 1PM shopping for, preparing, and eating food is normal here. I have to admit, it’s much better than going to Starbucks and then sitting around watching TV for the morning!
As for my durian experience, well, all I can say is that I’m glad that I tried it. I didn’t think that I could travel throughout Asia plus live here for a year and not try it! As I ate the creamy fruit I did have to remind myself that people actually LOVE this fruit in Asia. I think I’ll reserve my love for the mango instead.
Sherry Ott it the co-founder of Briefcase to Backpack, a website offering career break travel inspiration and advice. She also runs an around the world travel blog writing about her travel and expat adventures at Ottsworld – Travel and Life Experiences of a Corporate America Runaway.
Sherry Ott is a refugee from corporate IT who is now a long term traveler, blogger, and photographer. She’s a co-founder of Briefcasetobackpack.com, a website offering career break travel inspiration and advice.
Additionally, she runs an around the world travel blog writing about her travel and expat adventures at Ottsworld.com.com.
