The durian is a type of tropical fruit.

The durian tree grows up to 40 metres in height and durians can hang from any branches, and a typical durian can weigh 1-2 kg, so a durian plantation during durian season is hardhat territory. A durian breaking a 20 metre fall directly on your head can be very bad for your health!

The durian is native to Malaysia and Indonesia although it can grow in any similar climate (there have been some successful durian plantations in Queensland, Australia). The fruit is green to brown, oblong to round, prickly with strong sharp thorn and emits a strong distinctive durian smell that puts most foreigners off. It is often called the "king of fruits" by locals.

The scientific name for the durian is Durio zibethinus Murr.

There are many clones of the durian, all having a name starting with D and a number. For example, some popular clones are D24, D99, D158 and D159 (this is the 'Mon Thong' variety).

more info: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~durian/
See also how to choose a good durian

This fruit has a thorny green shell with soft yellow flesh around the seed. It has certain grades and the ones that seem to be the most popular are the ones that come from Thailand, which give out a strong fragrance, which most foreigners find repulsive. The workers in the plantations never have the need to wear helmets when they go round during harvesting season to pick up the fruits which have fallen from the trees(As opposed to the coconut which has no 'eyes').

Some nations where the durian is popular have laws against taking them on public transportation, and many hotels and rental cars forbid them, because the odor is so amazingly pungent.

Yesterday, March 25, 2000, I went down to Chinatown and bought myself a fat Mornthong durian. It was intense. It smelled like rotting meat or ass or a gas stove that wasn't lit. But it tasted really good. Like custard type consistency with really sweet flavors and a touch of garlic. Really crazy striations going on as well.

After the Ketamine, though, I just kind of wanted it out of my room.

Durian are what the Chinese call "heaty" fruit: they're liable to give you really bad gas.

Urban legend has it that if you drink alcohol and eat more than a kilo of durian at a time (and the people who love it, LOVE it and could with effort pack that much in in a sitting), the effects of the "heatiness" in the durian could put a person in a coma.

I don't believe this, myself.

I worked for a while in a bar on the East coast of Malaysia that was frequented by backpackers and Western and Malaysian oilmen. I remember a couple of Malay guys in particular who would go out for dinner and have a big feed of durian for dessert and then come in for their cans of warm Guinness (they thought it was medicinal) and proceed to burp durian gas till the whole (open-air) place stank of them.

I occasionally had to call them a cab, but never an ambulance. Didn't stop these fellas from crowing about the razor's edge they were walking, doing durian and Guinness.

Durian are one thing I do not miss about Southeast Asia.

According to my durian-eating Malaysian-Chinese auntie, the best way to rid yourself of the durian smell is to fill the empty half-shell of a durian with water, slosh it about a bit, wash your hands in it then use the water as a mouthwash. Of course, this requires that you can stand the smell for long enough to do so. My first experience of eating durian was a year ago, when my Mum (also Malaysian Chinese) gave me a large lump of durian flesh to eat. I popped the thing in my mouth, chewed once, nearly gagged, spat it out, and ran to wash out my mouth. I didn't stay around for the durian-flavored mouthwash.

The smell of durian is amazingly hard to get rid of. Soap doesn't help very much. The taste stays in your mouth for a long time and is only temporarily masked by toothpaste or mouthwash. If you happen to be attending a roughly twenty-person family reunion where you are one of four people who can't stand durian, and someone brings out a couple of bags of the dread fruit, the safest strategy is to stay in the house and lock the door. Durian breath is not pleasant.

I'm not sure whether the taste for durian is something one is born with, or whether it can be acquired. Whether one is willing to eat enough of a fruit that tastes like a cross between banana, garlic and something you'd drag out of a garbage can to get a taste for it is a different question.

Du"ri*an (?), or Du"ri*on (?), n. Bot.

The fruit of the durio. It is oval or globular, and eight or ten inches long. It has a hard prickly rind, containing a soft, cream-colored pulp, of a most delicious flavor and a very offensive odor. The seeds are roasted and eaten like chestnuts. Also Durion.

© Webster 1913.

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