On Durian

Confession to my American friends: I love durian :) :)
For you who haven't known what a durian is, here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

The link noted that "Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia." LOL.

I was surprised when one day, in Wyoming, I was watching Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Food (from Travel Channel) where it showed Zimmern eating durian. And it was the FIRST time I watched him spit something out! Imagine that, spitting the fruit out! That really hurt me.. lol, just kidding. But really, it was the first time I was exposed to the fact that many people didn't like durian! I knew a few of my friends back home didn't like the fruit, but it was just a really few people :)



Ok, and so my quest to find durian in the United States was not easy, but it was not as difficult as I thought. When I went to Arizona, I saw durian for the first time in an international supermarket in Phoenix (metro) area. Then I was trying to find the fruit in Denver (which is way, way closer, only 2.5 hours drive to the international market there). And yes, I found them!! I bought one, of course, and it was the first durian I ate in, two years. It was durian monthong, but it had been opened from its skin and put in a container. So there was really no difficulty at all. I also saw the "real" fruit (with the spiky skin and everything), but I didn't know why I didn't buy it - probably because I went with some friends and I didn't want them to pass out because of the durian smell.

So several days ago, my spouse and I went to an international store in another town called Cheyenne, about 45 minutes from this town. There we found a couple of durians in the store's freezer!! Woohooo, we were so excited because we knew that in Indonesia, this was the season of durian. And so we decided to buy one, with the price of $1.80 a pound, which made it about $ 12 total. One durian for approximately 120 thousand rupiahs??? (No, no, no, no conversion, please...lol)

Back to the apartment, I decided not to eat the durian that day. I put it in an open box. But yesterday, I found that there was water on the durian and the skin turned a bit brown. Ouch! I decided to put it back into the freezer. And this evening, my spouse and I felt like eating it. So we took it out of the freezer.

He was trying to open it with hands, as usual. But it would not crack open.
Okay, then he tried a knife. It didn't work.



The he tried a wooden spatula. Didn't work either!!

He tried a different knife. Well, no result.



Finally, he went to the storage room and took out a box. I asked him, what was that?
He smiled and took out a saw! a saw!! hahahaha....





And so after almost 45 minutes working on one durian, finally we were able to eat it. Now what's left was the confusion over how we supposed to wash our hands so that they wouln't smell, and how to get rid of the lingering odor in the apartment. Some of my friends on Facebook suggested that I used the inside part of the durian skin -put some water on it- to wash my hands. But the problem was, the skin now turned into small pieces, as what's left from the effort - because of the knives, wooden spatula, and the electric saw! Hahahahahahaaaa...


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