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Love It or Hate It, This Is the Forbidding Fruit

Whatever the odoriferous riot elsewhere in the steamy climes of Southeast Asia, Singapore as a nation is ruthlessly sweet-smelling. The air in most public buildings is pumped through banks of hyperefficient air conditioners, filtering and refiltering the air until a visitor might easily forget that this is the tropics. So how, then, to explain the durian?

Virtually unknown outside Asia, the durian is hailed here as the King of Fruits, a spiky, soccer-ball-sized globe beloved by Singaporeans for its sweet, custardy yellow flesh. The durians taste, texture and shape are all distinctive. But what makes the fruit truly unmistakable is the odora smell so overpowering that generations of Singaporeans have struggled to find a single description that fits.

Among the charitable, printable comparisons: overripe cheese. Rotting fish. Unwashed socks. A city dump on a hot summers day. Historians report that Sir Stamford Raffles, who established Singapore as a British trading post in 1819, held his nose and ran in the other direction if he caught even a whiff of the dreaded fruit. Another former British governor likened the stench to carrion in custard.

And yet the three million people of this prosperous island city-state cannot get enough of it. According to a popular saying, durians have the smell from hell and the taste from heaven. Another bit of durian lore […] when the durians come down from the trees, the sarongs [?] come off […] refers to the fruits legendary powers as an aphrodisiac.

Maybe this is our little way of rebelling, said a Singapore businessman, using his teeth to pull the tender fruit from around one of the huge seed pods found at the core of a durian. In Singapore, the Government has given us a nice life. But there is not so much freedom. So maybe we create a little trouble by eating the smelly fruit.

Durians are a costly habit. They are among the worlds most expensive fruits, about $4 a pound at the height of the season, which ends later this month. The best are imported from Malaysia and Thailand, although a few fruit-bearing durian trees are still left standing in Singapores modern-day forest of concrete and steel.

How to choose a durian

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Durian the King of Fruits for Southeast Asia – Learn How to Choose a Durian

I simply love eating Durians. In fact I grew up eating lots of Durians and my dad is quite the connoisseur and knows how to pick the lousy ones from the good types.

The durian is widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the “king of fruits”, the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow as large as 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 15 centimetres (6 in) in diameter, and it typically weighs one to three kilograms (2 to 7 lb). Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale yellow to red, depending on the species.

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit’s banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.

The durian, native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, has been known to the Western world for about 600 years. The 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously described its flesh as “a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds”. The flesh can be consumed at various stages of ripeness, and is used to flavour a wide variety of savoury and sweet edibles in Southeast Asian cuisines. The seeds can also be eaten when cooked.

There are 30 recognised Durio species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. Durio zibethinus is the only species available in the international market: other species are sold in their local regions. There are hundreds of durian cultivars; many consumers express preferences for specific cultivars, which fetch higher prices in the market.

We all love durians, don’t we? This is an amazing durian variety as its flesh is bood red in colour! Don’t look very edible eh, but I heard it is actually very tasty. Any idea where it is sold in Malaysia or Singapore?