Thai Scientist Successfully Cultivates Odourless Durians

ChannelNewsAsia.com ^ | July 27, 2007 | By Anasuya Sanyal

[JimSEA]

This seem appropriate place to invite mass criticism and derision by "pimping" my admittedly amaturish travel blog to be found here.

[Jemian]

I think I would try an odorless during. We didn’t used to have durian in Papua but there are so many pendatangs now that there is a market for it. You know what I think about regular durian.

[Jemian]

The smell defies description. It is awful. Just plain awful.

[saganite]

I’ve run across those things on the streets in Kuala Lumpur. You can’t stand the smell. I would either turn around or cross the street and hold my nose. They are banned from the hotels over there.

[Bon mots]

After many trips to Asia, I had to try a Durian.

Many businessmen would sneak out of their hotel on a secret mission to consort with a loose woman - or two... I snuck out surreptitiously, to find, buy and eat a Durian.

You are not allowed to bring a Durian into a 5-star hotel in most Asian countries and I think I tried my Durian when I was in Thailand. So first, you have to have a beer, or two... then I went out to find a Durian seller. I didn’t have to go far, as I saw some guys selling them right on the street. I tried to just buy a 1/4 of a Durian, as the things are huge... bigger than your head... but my English was not understood and I ended up buying the whole Durian, which the sellers promptly chopped up and bagged for me.

It stunk like hell.

Now, I had my Durian in a bag, and had to get it back to my hotel so I could eat it. The next thing I had to do was flag down a cab. No problem. Then I got into the cab... within about 2 seconds the whole taxicab stunk like Durian. I saw the driver cringe, but he said nothing.

He silently drove me to my hotel.
Now, I had to get into my hotel room without them catching me... so I stood outside in the dark and waited until the entire hotel staff was busy... then quickly sauntered in to an unused elevator.

The stink probably followed me all the way to my room and took days to go away....

I took my bagged durian right into the bathroom and immediatly shut the door and turned on the fan.

I had dishes and flatware, so tried my first Durian in the bathroom of a five-star hotel. It was actually quite tasty, although I had to hold my nose to take the first bite. I thought of the grade-school experiment of holding your nose when you bite into both an apple and onion...

The fruit was delicious, but there was way too much of it for one person to eat, so I had my fill and then had to smuggle the rest right outside of my hotel or it would have stunk up my entire floor.

I bagged the rest and went outside and gave it to some beggars. They seemed pleased.

Anyway, Durian is not bad tasting, but the smell is unbelievably bad.

When you are in Singapore, they even have signs with a picture of a Durian and the familiar red circle with a line through it over the Durian... much like the anti-smoking signs that are so familiar.

[Bon mots]

No Durians!

[Mase]

Durian. It’s the nastiest smelling thing imaginable. Smells like poop, tastes like poop and looks like poop. Of course, you can always make ice cream out of it in which case it will smell like poop, taste like poop but look like ice cream.

[Mr. Mulliner]

Thanks for the ping, Jem. I do love durians, especially Thai durians. I guess I got over the smell well enough, although I would never describe it as a pleasant smell.

I’ve seen durians in Asian stores here in America and they had no strong smell so I was suspect.

I remember an American couple who tried durian for the first time. He said it tasted like a combination of fried onions, something else, and kerosene. His wife disagreed and said, “No, it just takes like kerosene!”