Durian: King of Fruit & Fruit of Kings

...as the saying goes in Thailand.

Durian is especially beloved amongst the Thai. It's rich and smooth, with a consistency similar to that of an avocado, and a sweet lush flavor all its own. But you're forbidden to bring it onto a bus or into a taxi. Nor can you carry it into a public building. Walk into your hotel with a durian tucked under your arm like a football, and you're sure to be relocating soon. Why?

Because in spite of its flavor, this fruit's odor is so outrageously rank as to make dog breath seem positively perfumy. Its smell has long strained the bounds of hyperbole for adequate descriptors, including sweaty gym sock and rotten egg....actually rotten anything!

 I was surprised to find this woman selling cut durian on the street, so tightly are its possession and transport regulated.

It's really large, so you can't just buy one and munch on it like an apple while you're out in the open. You have to carve through its thick, spiny exterior to reach the soft, creamy pockets of fruit inside. Its fragrance--odor is more accurate--is most assuredly off-putting, but durian is addictively tasty.

 Here's the fresh stuff. Durian is creamy, with a consistency similar to that of an avocado, and a sweet delicate flavor.

While durian is available much of the year, the season runs from late spring into early summer, when you can find the best and sweetest specimens. It's readily available dehydrated and made into a paste, which you can either bake with or eat right out of the tube. Durian is also dried into chips. Think banana chips, but thinner and with more flavor.

 

Durian paste is available in these tubes that are about the size of cigars. The larger size looks like a package of golden cookie dough.
The paste delivers the flavor with only a slight odor.

  

These lovely cakes remind me of Chinese lotus cakes, but they're filled with durian paste. They're sweet and tasty with none of the stout odor of the fresh durian.

  

Durian chips are an incredibly popular snack. They carry none of the pungent smell of the fresh fruit.

A couple of years ago  I had some ice cream in L.A.'s Thai Town that was made from fresh durian. It was simultaneously sweet and savory, with a back-flavor of garlic. Or was it sulfur? Hmm. No matter, it was intriguing but good. And it makes me consider that old smelly-as-tasty conundrum. Some of the stinkiest cheeses have the mildest yet richest flavors. I don't understand it, but I appreciate it. The same is true with durian.

I realize I'm not doing much to sell it, but durian is actually a lovely fruit, once you get past the smell. And you should, if you get the opportunity. If you live in a town with a strong Asian presence, chances are the Asian groceries carry it when it's in season. This won't provide the best example of how tasty it is, though, since it will have been picked green and shipped halfway 'round the globe. Still it's worth a try. If your travels ever take you to Thailand--and they should--you should seek it out. But don't let your nose boss around your taste buds. Let them have their say. If for no other reason, you'll claim some amazing braggin' rights!

Thailand: Land of the Snack Attack

Thailand is a land of snackers.

Meals center around a plate of rice with a few bites of different meat, fish and vegetable dishes to support it (not the other way around--RICE is the focus here). Or noodle dishes, such as the beloved Pad Thai. Always with fresh fruit for dessert. This type of meal leaves room for treats, which is a good thing, because Thais love their treats! Snacking in Thailand is quite a different thing than it is in the West, though. While candy bars, potato chips and fast food--especially anything fried--tend to be staples on the snack menu in the States, Thailand has quite different tastes, most of which are vastly healthier than ours.

Fresh fruit is popular, and considering the wide variety of fruit that grows in this tropical locale--and the sheer volume of it--that's a good thing. I've never seen so much fresh fruit in my life!

  It's easy when you're strolling down the street to find a cup of fresh strawberries or chunks of pineapple to snack on.

But with all that fruit, a lot of it has to be preserved. So dried fruit is a common snack, too. [One of the most popular fruits either fresh or dried is durian, but that section of the blog got so big it had to split off on its own. Look for it this weekend.]

 These bananas are dehydrated and coated in honey--unbelievably sweet!

Coconut juice doesn't get any fresher than this!

Fresh fruit juices are often presented in plastic bags with a straw inserted--I suppose because this takes up less space in the trash. With millions regularly sipping juice this way, all those disposable cups would add up in a hurry.

Sweet, salty, spicy & buttery--this fresh corn was one of my favorite walking-around treats.

The fresh corn sold on the street reminded Cecilia of elote, one of those great street foods in her hometown of Mexico City. There the corn is served on the cob, coated in a thin layer of mayo and dipped in grated cotija cheese and chile powder. That's my favorite street food in Mexico City, so I was glad to find it here, too.

The Thai version of "street corn" contains butter, salt, sugar and chile powder. This guy keeps the corn warm in a cooker on top of a propane tank. When you order some, he ladles it into a bowl and seasons it especially for you, mixing it well so that every kernel has all the flavor it should.

  

Sausages and meats are also popular choices for walking-around food. A single Thai sausage carries the flavor of an entire meal!

 mmm, flossy pork (curiously, pork in Thai is "moo"). Not really what I'd call jerky, but it IS dried meat.

Occasionally you'll find more Western-styled snacks, but they're the exception rather than the rule. 

 These freshly baked little treats were made of potato. Reminded me a bit of Bugles, with the flavor of Pringles, but fresh. Very fresh--still warm from the oven.

Then there's toasted seaweed. It looks just like nori, which is rolled around sushi, but this is crunchy and easy to snack on, not chewy like nori. It has an aggressively healthy taste to it, almost off-puttingly so.

The only food I absolutely couldn't stand while I was in Thailand was a bag of hard candy with the curiously cheerful name of Let's Party! C'mon--how can you NOT try a candy with that name? I defy you! I picked it up in a 7-11 (yes, they have them there). They were individually-wrapped red candies. Cherry flavored? Strawberry? Raspberry, perhaps? or Red currant? They were none of the above. The best approximation of flavor I can provide is that they tasted like what I assume you'd get if you made cough drops out of lighter fluid. After about 20 seconds, the piece in my mouth--and the rest of the bag--went into the trash. An entire travel-sized bottle of Listerine couldn't put a dent in the aftertaste.

This is a pretty decent record, though. It would be unusual to say I've disliked only one thing I've eaten in any 10-day period here at home. So to travel for this length of time in Thailand and encounter only one food I didn't like is amazing.

So what's my favorite Thai snack? Fruit that's so fresh you'd swear it has added sugar is awfully good. So's the corn. And Thai sausages are one of my favorite foods, period.

There's still a particular fruit to consider...one of which I spoke earlier, one that will get its own blog entry in a day or two...