DURIAN

I was first introdused to the durian by Paul "The Durian King" Nison, author of "The Raw Life", who I met last year.

And here is my spiel: A durian is a large tropical fruit that grows in south-east asia, most commonly in thailand. It's size ranges somewhere between the size of a football to a basketball and usually wieghs about 5 to 10 pounds at about a dollar a pound(its worth it). Because Of it's size and spikiness(like a crown), it is known as "The King of Fruit".

It has a thick, hard, greenish-brownish, spikey shell and has several pods inside that each contain large seeds, each covered in the fruit's yellow, custard-like meat. Due to the wieght of the fruit, and the hard spikey shell, it is very dangerous to walk under their very tall trees. Luckily, the trees only drops its fruit at night, and they often have nets to catch them.

Some say that it smells like hell, and taste like heaven. This is supposivly because many people think it smells disgusting and tastes delicious. Personaly, I love the smell and taste. MMmmmm, I really love the taste. Unfortunatly, they are frozen when shiped here, and thats makes it loose alot of the flavor and texture. But some people can't stand the taste... I believe that it is an aquirred taste. They will claim that it tastes like garlic icecream... or that it taste the way that a skunk smells. I say that it just taste different, and once you get used to it, it will be your favorite food. As for the smell: They actually have signs in singapore that say "No Durians allowed", with a picture of a durian crossed out. I have a photo if anyone wants to see it.

JesseBorges