Dear K...,
You don't want to know what is a Durian and count your blessings that you have not yet encountered one. It is actually a giant egg shaped fruit with sort of spiky skin. Opening said monster, you will encounter one of the most obnoxious, pernicious, clingy rotten vomititious smell you have ever had the misfortune to encounter in your lifetime. Did I mention that the inside of this fruit assaulting your nose and all other senses has a creamy texture? However, this particular noxious giant is an acquired taste and some Asian markets even sell durian flavored wafer cookies and Durian hard candies.
My youngest son, ever on the lookout to shock the public in some way without crossing the social line into antisocial, brought a five pound one of these on a plastic platter to a church potluck meal. He was satisfied with some of the comments along the line of "Get that rotted thing out of here; It is stinking up the whole hall" but a couple of adventurous people, especially one gastronomically adventurous German transplant, who stood next to it, breathed deeply of its aural essence and spooned out great globs of it into their bowls, exclaiming over how fortunate they were to have tried it. Encouraged, a couple other people gave it a go. And one young guy, maybe 18 or 19, put a big chunk of what was left after the meal into a plastic bag, tied it tight at the top, and, tying it to the handlebars of his bicycle, pedaled it off into the night.
xx
