Durian is a very famous fruit among all raw food community.
It is a delicacy of raw food like truffles, caviar or champagne among traditional food lovers.
It’s fame and glamour comes from the very characteristic smell and taste, almost unpleasant, actually very unpleasant for someone who never had a chance to check it out before.
Durians grow only in tropics and Thailand is very famous for great quality of Durians all over the world. It is possible to purchase frozen, but as far as I know it is not recommended to buy imported fresh, due to a lot of chemicals. So to try Durian the best idea is to visit the TROPICS.
I was kind of reserved to even try it for a few months since we are here. I have seen Durians many times in Chiang Mai, huge in size and the smell was so terrible for me back then, I could not pass by without closing my nose. I really thought why people even want to eat it?
Every time we came to Chiang Mai, I would be seeing Durians again and again and after few times I started to smell sweet between the terrible smell. It was when Annie was here and we were together shopping at Chiang Mai market. I told her I can smell something sweet and delicious before I smell the stink. She said that this means I may like it when I try it. It supposed to be like that with everyone sooner or later. Once it becomes familiar it starts to smell better and many people really love it. It becomes the best delicacy and fantastic treat.
So, I decided to try it when Durians will arrive in Phrao, where we live. Here in our little town things are much more seasonal. Nobody brings here fruits that are not in season, because nobody will buy it. It would be way too expensive. It is good and bad at the same time. I think it is great to enjoy seasonal fruits only, because the menu is changing and there is the part of us waiting for something, that is coming soon. In Chiang Mai there almost always everything to buy at all times. The only exception are avocados and zucchinis, that I barely see at the market, especially lately and all I can hear is: not in season yet.
The day has come and just like I promised I bought yesterday first DURIAN from our local fruit stand at the market. It is pretty cheap right now, I got it for about 150 baht per kilo with the skin and I used to see a tray of Durian, about 250g flesh only (with seeds), for over 500 baht.
Everyone at home was super curious and anxious to try it, maybe Travis the least of us all, but he was at least very curious how does it look like.
I was the first to try and must say that the experience was very weird at first. It is looking much firmer then it’s actual texture is. It kind of looks like old chicken breast, that was left on the counter for entire day and turned a bit dry.
I was expecting something much more chewy, sort of like jack fruit.
But it is very soft, hard to compare to anything I know.
The fruit itself is very minimal amount on the pit, that is very large, so there is not so much to eat. It is a sort of desert like fruit with very strong sweet but sort of stinky smell.
It is not as sweet in taste as it smells.
However we are used to stinky vegetables like garlic and onions and we just know those since childhood so it’s fine.
This is a sort of like that smell, very organic and becomes pleasant after a while.
I am not the biggest fan of it yet.
Let the idea sit in my head.
It was the same with olives, when I tried them for the first time.
It took me two years to love them but I do love them today 🙂
