Durian

The highway consist of many stands that sells anything from fruits to fried food. This is a durian stand where you can either buy durian to go or as you can see someone had the fruits there.  Durian is considered a vile smelly fruit that most hotels banned.  I can not tell you that it smells bad because I grew up loving the taste and smell of it.  I always looked forward to them when they were in season.  Andrew Zimmern compared this fruit to rotten custard while Anthony Bourdain loves it.

When I was about 6, my father brought my sister and I to a friends place to visit.  He was working in the jungle, about 15 minutes off the trail. Trees of more than 100 feet surrounded us and I kept hearing thumping sounds every few minutes, sound of something hard dropping onto the floor. I remember I asked my father what that sound was and he said that it was durian falling to the ground. I was terrified of one falling on my head that I stuck close to him for the duration of the visit.

When it is durian season, durian sellers like this one collect the fruits daily and sell it within 24 hours of picking them. So the smell of this fruit is amazingly strong.  Since this was the first trip back to Malaysia in about 15 years, my brother-in-law knew that I have not eaten durian for that long.  So he made sure that he got a few for me to have.  We could smell the un-open durian while it was in the trunk of the car. NYC do sell durian but they are not the same, they have been frozen and thawed.  Some things are meant to be eaten fresh or not have at all. To me this is one of those things.

This fruit has a very spiky hard shell that grows on very tall trees.  If you are unlucky to be under it while it drop, you are a goner!

The seller expertly opening a durian, some customers eat it right there.  I guess if you are driving by and wanted some durian, you can have it then and there. If you want something fried, go to the next stand, drink? Next stand too.  This is what so great about driving through Malaysia.  They may not be as sanitary as the FDA deem safe but if you grow up eating there, you will have the immune system to fight off bacteria or for instance the rusty cleaver the guy is using to open the durian.  These are all standard in Malaysia and I grew up just fine in these condition.

 

This is a fruit you either hate or love, there is really no in between.