July 15, 2006--No, not another hip, chic New York City restaurant.

Fruit!  Also known as the "King of Fruit."  Only the ugliest, most "aromatic" fruit you have ever seen and smelled.  As a hint to how aromatic it is--when I have tried to buy a Durian in NYC's Chinatown in the past, merchants were reluctant to sell it to me because they said it "smelled really bad and I would not like it."  Well they were right about the odor, but I did actually like the taste.  It has been said, according to the Durian Online web site , that "a few Southeast Asian countries even BAN the presence of Durian in selected public spots due to its offensive smell."

Durian is a big, thorny seed shaped fruit native to very warm, humid environments in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Australia and Honduras.  It is also grown in certain areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Hawai'i and parts of the Caribbean.  The season extends from May to December depending upon where they are grown.  The Durian I bought was from Thailand, weighed about nine pounds and cost $1.25 per pound in Chinatown.  This is actually quite inexpensive because Malaysian connoisseurs have been known to pay up to $75 USD for a "freshly dropped" Durian. 

Only about 15%-25% of the Durian is edible fruit with about 20% seeds so Durian is probably one of the most expensive fruits in terms of its ration of edible portion to the whole.  The fruit is a bit like a pomegranate except instead of many seeds separated by a membrane, Durian has two very large kidney bean-shaped and colored seeds per section separated by a fibrous membrane. There are about four large sections per fruit.  A custard or flan-like texture surrounds the seeds.  It is this flan-like substance that is the edible portion of the Durian.  Durians are ripe when they begin to smell, are a brownish, yellow in color and have a slight lengthwise split in their shell. A segment of the stem is also desirable.  The split is said to help naturally find the location of the inner sections.  It is not really difficult to cut through the shell, but the thorns are painful.  I wore an oven mitt and placed the Durian on several sheets of an opened copy of The New York Times--some might say that it was a really appropriate use of The NYT these days. 

Durian has 153 calories per 100 grams or about 3 1/4 ounces and raw food enthusiasts will recommend eating one entire Durian a day per person. The fruit has no cholesterol, but is high in carbohydrates, natural sugar and fiber.  It has an addictive flavor once you get past the aroma, but it is quite filling so I think most Americans would have a hard time eating the entire fruit by themselves.  The Durian has fairly high levels of tryptophan so to tell you the truth, I took a nap after eating it.  It is kind of like the vegetarian equivalent of a turkey.  

Okay, now to the issue of aroma or odor or stench.  At first it smells like gas--not yours--natural gas.  It also brings to mind a certain musty odor, lycee, limburger, alcohol and onion with a vanilla finish. No kidding!  It is like 100 flavors intermingled and hard to separate one from another.  I opened the fruit at my parent's apartment and within 10 minutes the building porters were ringing the bell to see if my parents smelled gas.  Neighbors in the building were complaining about a gas leak.  We realized at that point that Durian had quite a potent aroma and that the building porters really wanted to take a break with us.  Carlos, who is from Honduras, had a certain homesick glimmer in his eye and soon a full belly.  He also became a friend-in-court who protected us against irate and less adventurous neighbors.

For foodies among you and those who haven't already tried Durian, I recommend it.  It is a pleasant change from the tasteless fruits we are often subjected to.  And although Durian travels thousands of miles to New York too and is totally anti-Local, it is sustainable and worth a try.