Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/10/crazy-russian-hacker-tries-dur.html
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I personally find durian tasty. The quote neglects the labia-like texture of the fresh fruit, which, you know, is a plus.
Edit 'cos I just realized the ambiguity: The texture is a plus… not the neglected mention of the texture.
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I didn’t find durian all that gross until I read your comment.
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I suggest you keep that off your Tinder profile.
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I’ve had it, and I actually quite like it. To me it’s less rotten bananas and more sweet garlic ice cream.
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I tried it once, it really isn’t that bad.
Freezing it then thawing it out helps.
Also, holding your nose for the first bite.
It has two different competing tastes: oniony and berry-like, along with a custardy texture.
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When I had fresh durian straight from the pod, it was fascinating, like vanilla and banana combined with tropical berry flavors, but with that touch of savory that’s really unique, and it didn’t have any foul or offensive odor at all. I wondered what folks were talking about.
The next day, I walked into the kitchen where I’d tossed the remnants of the durian into the trash and it was like walking into a landfill covered in poop.
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Ok, this isn’t the first time that I’ve heard something like this. At this point, I’m pretty sure that some percentage of humanity has a different scent receptor gene, kind of like how some people complain that rosemary tastes “soapy”.
Or like nungesser mentioned, it may also have to do with freshness, like how fish’s putrescene (I think?) chemical is released more with time, and gives less-fresh fish an increasingly “fishy” odor.
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I had durian in a pastry once. It slightly reminded me of cherimoya- in the way it tasted vaguely like a blend of a lot of overripe tropical fruit, and maybe the a tinge of that sweet early-stage decay you get in over ripe fruit. Like the smell of a basket of strawberries left out in the heat, where a few have started molding, but the rest are just squishy and fragrant.
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Yeah, for reference, I’d bought it from an Asian store where it was kept very cold on ice, and opened it as soon as I got home. The rotten stench didn’t really make itself known until it’d warmed up and sat out overnight.
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Oh the ridiculous things humans will eat. I’ll bet it goes great with lutefisk and cuitlachoche.
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Which is actually surprisingly mellow! I’ve had huitlacoche tacos several times, and despite the inherent weirdness of eating corn smut, it’s got this really nice smoky, sweet flavor, like grilled mushrooms mixed with corn.
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I mean, that’s almost literally what it is…
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Tried it once. Smells like extremely rancid old cold stale fried onions. The ONLY way to eat it is with a clothes peg on the nose. Given that we mostly taste with our nose, allowing any of the scent in totally ruins it. And at that point it was silky smooth in texture but did not make me understand the gushing enthusiasm of those around me. Nice enought but a bit meh.
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I’ve have both huitlacoche and durian, and can say that the former is much better.
And that both of them pale in comparison to Campari.
Apparently cats hate the stuff, which isn’t surprising. There are a bunch of videos online of people tormenting their cats with pieces of durian - with reactions varying from snapping their head back in revulsion, near-vomitous gagging from the smell, and making burying motions like they are trying to dispose of shit.
And then there’s this guy, who just swoons…
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Throw it in a blender and spray it as a crowd-control agent.
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When I was a teenager, my father’s girlfriend was eating Lychee and out of nowhere, she declared that when she put her tongue into the fruit, it felt like …
… ah never mind.
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She’s not wrong.
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