The strangest of tastes - Part II

I had just finished the piece of marmite, when my attention was drawn to another product which draws an equally fanatic following.. on either side. Durian.

Opponents of this food product say that eating durian is "like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory novelist ( British novelist, Anthony Burgess). Chef Andrew Zimmern compares the taste to "completely rotten, mushy onions." Anthony Bourdain, while a lover of durian, relates his encounter with the fruit as thus: "Its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother." Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says: ... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Other comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs.

One would imagine that with such testimonials, the devotees of this fruit would be chastened. Not so. Indeed lovers of the fruit call it the “King of the Fruits".The Javanese believe durian to have aphrodisiac qualities. A saying in Indonesian says “durian jatuh sarung naik” which loosely translated means that when "the durians fall ..the sarongs come up".

Durian is an expensive and exotic fruit from Asia and its name is derived from the Malay word "duri" meaning thorn - due to its thick, tough and thorny husk. The durian fruit is either loved by durian aficionados with an almost cult like fervor or hated by those repelled by its smell. The rich, buttery smooth and luscious flesh of the durian fruit is delicious and is comparable to no other fruit. However, the disagreeable odor of the durian fruit gave birth to this often repeated phrase: "durian is a fruit that smells like hell but taste like heaven".
It is said that you should

• Never burp after devouring on a Durian. The consequences are ghastly!
• Never combine Durian with carbonated drinks. This choice will leave you sorry!
• Never leave the Durian in the car on a hot summer's day or even in a hotel room. The stench will take the wind out of your sails.
• Never kiss your better half after consuming a Durian. You will end up on your rear or even a break-up.
• Never leave Durian uncovered in the fridge. Or else, the entire stuff in the fridge will smell like Durian and you will have only smelly food for dinner.

Indeed its odor has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia. At least marmite is not banned anywhere that I know of!