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Durian: "It stinks like hell, but tastes like heaven"

Let me tell you about durian. I actually heard about durian before we left for Thailand. I remember reading someone’s story posted on a web site. The writer recalled seeing a sign posted in a hotel in Phuket. The sign forbade eating durian in the hotel rooms. When we got to Chiang Mai, Lucia talked about eating durian. Chai, our private tour guide, said there was a saying about durian. "It stinks like hell but tastes like heaven." Lucia said she wanted to eat durian but was afraid that I wouldn't want to be around her with the smell of durian on her breath. With all this talk about how bad durian smelled, I wasn't sure what to expect. I conjured thoughts of something that smelled as bad as a pit toilet on a hot day, or the smell of dog pooh after you step in it, or the sickening smell of vomit. Lucia kept talking about wanted to eat durian. I kept telling her to ignore how I might react and to go and eat some.

Finally, when we were in Bangkok, we went out to dinner with Lucia’s mother, her aunts and an uncle. At the end of the meal, her uncle’s daughter Boom Boom encouraged me to have some desert. She tried to get me to order some durian. I declined but ordered a wonderful desert with mangos. Lucia had gone to the bathroom, but when she got back, she ordered the durian. After a long wait the durian arrived and the put it down in front of Lucia and the moment of truth on durian had arrived for me. Lucia asked if I wanted to smell it. I was sitting right next to Lucia and I couldn't smell a thing. So I leaned down so I could smell it better. It had a little aroma but nothing like what I was expecting. The way people talked about the smell of durian, I was expecting something that would make me want to gag or throw up. But the durian smelled nothing like that. It only had a slight smell that was no stronger than the smell from cantaloupe. You have to hold your nose close to the durian to smell anything at all. After I smelled the Durian, I told Lucia that it didn't smell bad at all. Lucia asked if I wanted to try it. So I had a small bite. It tasted pretty good actually. But the taste was not the whole story. Beer connoisseurs talk about the ‘mouth feel’ of the beer. If you ever want to know what that means, just try some durian. Durian has a very smooth, creamy texture to it that feels wonderful in your mouth. It is the combination of taste and texture that makes eating durian such a wonderful Epicurean delight for the Thais. The only bad thing about durian is that is calorie dense and contains a ton of calories in each bite. So eating too much durian will leave you looking like Jabba, the Hut in no time.