My Comment on Andrew Zimmern's Blog

The blog post can be found here. The following is my comment to Andrew Zimmern's blog:

Give Durian a Chance

I am originally from Hong Kong, so durian is no stranger to me. Even so, I have always been really reluctant to try durian ever since I was a little kid. Locals often seem to make fun of durian too. (For example, when I was in high school, one "punishment" among our peers was to eat durian in front of the whole class) However, my grandparents from my mom side seems to like it very much, they tried to force me with it. Not until a few years ago, I finally got to eat it. What really bothered me was, surprisingly not the smell, nor the taste, but the texture of it. It smelled like trash you have put there for more than a month, tasted slightly bitter, but the texture was certainly beyond words can ever do a justice. It just felt like eating some really rotten tofu (yuck!). The whole durian-eating experience was... a stimulating roller coaster ride for all my senses.

However, if you have ever come to Hong Kong, you will find a lot of by-products made by durian which actually tastes acceptable, if not, delicious. One recommendation is the infamous durian pancake made by Honeymoon Dessert. Despite the fact that the crepe is green in color, it tastes awesome with whipped cream and tiny durian pieces. (They probably put a lot of sugar in it to balance off its smell, though)

The locals always say: if you can bare the smell of durian, you can pretty much eat everything. Give durian a chance, it really doesn't taste as bad as it smells.

By thesilkworm on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 05:27