THE DURIAN, THE FRUIT THAT MAKES SOME BEG, STEAL OR BORROW

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Durio zibethinus
FAMILY: Bombacaceae

What smells like a garbage truck running over a skunk on a damp day?
Durian

It is a fruit so smelly that it is barred from airplanes, trains and most hotels in Southeast Asia - yet there are those who would beg borrow or steal to satisfy their passion for the forbidding fruit.

The telltale stench permeates sections of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand now that the durian season has peaked again.

The aroma is the perfume of prosperity for growers and others in the trade. Superior durians were fetching HK$16 a kilogram in Singapore this week. Top quality ones have sold for the local equivalent of as much as HK$250 each in Bangkok.

Durian grows on trees sometimes more than 30 metres tall, with as few as 10 or as many as 500 on a tree. The fruit varies widely in size and shape, but generally is about 20 cms long and 17 cms wide.

The outer rind is thick and covered with sharp thorns, or 'duri', so tough that a few break open when they fall to the ground.

Durians can be used in cakes, packaged like long sausages, made into durian jam or even durian-flavoured ice cream.

Purists, however, appraise carefully, bargain heatedly and then eat durian raw with the fingers.

"The right way to eat durian is squatting by the roadside or sitting on the kitchen floor, taking the fleshy seeds straight from the shells as they are cracked and prised open, using fingers and licking them afterwards with that mandatory mad look in the eye," New Straits Times columnist Sri Delima wrote.

A heavy knife is used to split the fruit and expose the pulp, which ranges in colour from pale yellow to bright orange. Scientists say it has a protein content of 2.5 percent, and only 100 grams of pulp has 150 calories,the equivalent of a bowl of rice.

Rapid chemical change starts the moment a durian drops from its tree, changing the flavour perceptibly within hours. This fermentation spoils the fruit in less than a week.

"When durians are down, skirts are up," according to a regional saying. It refers both to the alleged aphrodisiac effect of the fruit and skirt-like wrappers worn by many Malay men which have to be hiked up for running during nocturnal raids in local orchards.

Mature trees need little attention. Malays liken the assured income from growing durians to a happy windfall, as reflected in the saying "like durian fall." The durian is related to hibiscus, hollyhock, cotton and kapok. Scientists say it is native to Malaysia and has been cultivated in tropical Asia for centuries. Writers have stretched their imaginations for almost as long trying to describe the incongruous combination of taste and smell.

"The rich brimstone musk, whispering of depravity and month-old eggs... durian is to fruit what limburger is to cheese and pornography is to literature," was how one journalist termed it.

British novelist Anthony Burgess told of "the fetid exciting reek... (like) eating a sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory."

Another description said it was like "a combination of cornflour, rotten cheese, nectarines, crushed filberts, thick cream, apricot pulp and a soupçon of garlic, all reduced to the consistency of a thick custard."

- AP

DATE: September 1981

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