id been wanting to try it after reading about it. for those who dont know, its an asian fruit notable for its tough appearance (see pic below) and very bad smell. so bad that its illegal to bring one on the subway in asia and most hotels dont allow them either. its supposed to have a taste as good as its smell is bad, though.

here it is after opening and eating some. (i forgot to take a pic before i opened it.)




you can see that the flesh isnt as plump as it should be. i got an 'outside' one that was past its prime. probably shouldnt have, but it was $1.79/lb instead of $5.99/lb. pretty big difference, so i figured id give it a try and see.

the smell wasnt so bad, hardly any at all before i opened it. thats probably partly because it wasnt as fresh and partly because it was still slightly frozen. by the morning, after i made the mistake of leaving the husk in the garbage can overnight, it was smelling quite a bit more, although still not terribly.

the taste was pretty good, very sweet and custardy, especially on my first bite. after that, i started to get more of the oniony taste people mention. picture a vanilla-onion custard that was left out overnight and slightly spoiled. i think its the oniony/kinda spoiled taste that gets people. its a very different taste than western palates are accustomed to. while theres historic reports of westerners visiting asia and trying it, and liking it (even saying its better than any other fruit) i think they were able to appreciate it because in the days before refrigeration people commonly ate food that was what we would now consider spoiled, or at least unpalatable. so i dont think many modern westerners are going to be able to appreciate it.

id give a fresher one another try, though, i didnt find it too terrible. my wife didnt like it, though, and my daughter wouldnt even try it, even though she had been excited about the new fruit until i opened it and she got a whiff. in all, i think i ate about a fifth of it. the rest i turned into a durian-mint sorbet, but i got busy and wasnt able to do it until a couple days after i had opened it. by then, the oniony taste had intensified and the sweet custardy taste dissipated. fresher, i think it wouldve been good, but by then it didnt work out. i ended up tossing it over the fence to the train tracks. i also tried roasting the seeds and eating them, but i also didnt get to that til a few days later. they had a taste similar to chestnuts, but with that same oniony/spoiled undertone.

This post was edited by ReturnFormer on Feb 19 2013 07:45pm

I dropped one on my foot and it cut me pretty good lol

I also bought one with intentions of eating it. I did not succeed

My girlfriend (she's Filipino) ate it without much problem

The texture sickened me

i see these in markets in the US frozen, but in markets in Beijing they have em there fresh, next to pineapples. honestly the smell i think is quite nice and, not bad at all. idk about the taste but the texture would probably do it for me too; i cant stand things that feel like mucus.

kudos for you to try it though!

theres another fruit called jack fruit that looks like durian but tastes different, try that too

I've been meaning to try and find one, just haven't gotten around to it. I could see it making some really interesting desserts.

Hated it.

Texture, smell, appearance, and that hint of onion mixed with all of those

ouch.

yeah, i wasnt too keen on the texture, either, thats part of why i decided to make the rest into a sorbet. i still managed to eat about a fifth of it, though.




yeah, ive seen jackfruits, too, but not up here. we visited my parents in florida recently, and went to a gardens/orchard that grows a lot of exotic fruits, and jackfruit was one of em.




yeah, i think if i hadnt waited so long to do it and it had been fresher to start with the sorbet would have been quite nice. maybe one day ill try again.




that seems to be most people's reaction...

Durians are so yummy
Jackfruits too
just don't go to sleep under a durian or jackfruit tree
if the fruit drops and lands on you you're most likely going to die or get injured

I think different people smell and taste it differently, i had the firm intention of eating it but found it totally gross and disgusting and couldnt eat more than a spoonful of it xD also found it smelled of propane which didnt help me want to eat it

Similar smell to me, nearly threw up. I managed to stomach a little bit but that was it for me

i bought some Mangosteen last night at jungle jims, gota say its fkn deliciouse and nutritious but i paid 3.99 for 3 small fruits that you would have to eat like 6-7 to = to the volume of a banana

This post was edited by patriot_one on Mar 3 2013 09:50am