It's Dangerous! It's Divine! It's Durian!

In back is the whole durian. In front is the
prepackaged, frozen durian

Until I started exploring the world of raw foods, I had only briefly heard of durian, a.k.a. "the king of fruits" to many in southeast Asia where the fruit is grown and is beloved, a.k.a. "the stinky fruit" to many here in the west where we are unaccustomed to the strong flavor, and even more so, smell of the fruit. I had originally heard of the fruit when Andrew Zimmern tried it on his Travel Channel series Bizarre Foods. This guy can eat turtles, animal guts, bat wings, and pretty much anything he is given, but one bite of durian caused him to start gagging and he could take no more. I was so curious, because I've always been one who can handle "unusual" foods, but I largely forgot about the stinky fruit for over a decade. Once I started educating myself on raw foods this fruit started popping up all over the place. It seems it's widely talked about in the raw food community, and more commonly appreciated than elsewhere, which seems understandable. I know the more I try various new raw foods and eat larger amounts of raw foods in general, the more I like new and unique flavors. Also, it's almost like once you get rid of cravings for salty, fatty foods and give your body fresh, living foods, your body knows what's good for it and craves these things.

So after hearing more and more about this fruit and watching YouTube videos of raw vegan durian parties I became almost obsessed with giving it a try. I searched all over the web trying to figure out how to obtain some, but learned that it wasn't in season. To tide myself over, I ordered some freeze-dried durian from The Raw Food World. I was incredibly surprised how mild the stuff was. I liked it, but didn't love it. It reminded me of a crunchy sweetbread mixed with dehydrated banana that had perhaps gone just a little stale. I knew there was probably more to the real stuff, but was glad to have finally tried it. 

Husk of the durian fruit

Well, the moment of truth finally came. I was in Dallas with my brother and my mini-vacation turned into a bit of a durianfest. We were at an Asian mall, of sorts, and my brother noticed one of the stores that sold bubble tea made a durian smoothie with tapioca pearls. I decided to give it a try, and I loved it. I recognized the durian flavor, and felt like I got to experience it more strongly in this form. From the bubble tea place, we walked next door to the grocery area where we found frozen durian pods in a plastic container, as well as a WHOLE DURIAN! I was so excited I could have screamed (I think I held it to a gasp, though). 

So what were the results? I had two very different experiences with the prepackaged frozen pods and the whole fruit. When the frozen pods thawed out, the texture became like a mixture of watery, slimy pudding with fibrous chunks akin to canned artichoke. The flavor was pleasant, but I gagged on the texture. This morning I turned the rest of that into a smoothie that I found to be absolutely wonderful, but my family wasn't too keen on. After that I became super anxious to open the whole fruit, which had been outside thawing the night before so as to not stink the house up. Opening the durian was the most fun I've had in a while. Sounds sad, I know, but it was really cool. The fruit is so hard, spiky, and dangerous to work with (it's said you could kill a man with a blow to the head with a durian), but there are these little fragile lines running across the fruit where you can literally tear it open with your hands. Once inside, you find these perfectly formed, soft little yellow pods. They feel like a super soft play dough to the touch. When I first tasted this one it was like heaven on my tongue. It was like eating a soft, creamy pudding and tasted like vanilla, shortbread, sugar cookies, stuff like that, but the flavor was much richer and more complex. There's truly nothing I can compare it to and convey what it's like. I think complex is the most important word there. There were just a couple parts of the texture that I'm still getting used to, but I'm sure I will be a durian king in no time.

I'm so happy to have eased into this with the smoothies and freeze-dried durian. part of the problem with people unfamiliar to the fruit trying it for the first time is that they jump straight into chowing into the fruit. Durian is so truly different from anything we have here in the west that easing into it can help a lot with it not being too big of a shock. So, my friends. If you ever get the chance, try a durian smoothie, candy, cookie, etc. And if you don't like it, don't give up. Durian also seems to be very different from experience to experience. Keep trying until you find your durian bliss!!!

Much Love!

Devan

P.S. Here's today's lunch: Fresh strawberries, and sweet, ripe plums. Mmm-mmm!