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Singapore, 1984. Purchased 1# of ripe durian pods. Triple ziplock bagged creamy looking flesh. Stored in hotel room.....did not know that was illegal. Returned to discover an deeply violating, unholy odor permeating the hall from behind my closed room door. Quickly removed offending package to the rear building parking lot, lit only by floods and fireflies. Attempted to spoon flesh into my mouth. Attempted to swallow said flesh. Expectorated flesh and half my supper supper on the ground....did not know that was illegal in Singapore. Sealed the zip locks with a shaken hand, hurled the package out into the dark over the rear chain link fense, thereby breaking a third (no littering!) Singapore law. Total fines evaded....$3000. But the room.....would....not....air....out.

coastalvicar

Honestly, I don't get the hype surrounding durian. I don't think the smell is that bad. I don't particularly enjoy the taste but I continue to be surprised at the reaction it evokes. Even Andrew Zimmern, who eats massive worms raw, spit up when he ate a durian. Even after years of living in SE Asia and smelling it often at the market, I always thought, well, perhaps I'm smelling the wrong thing, or maybe that I kept mistaking a jackfruit for a durian. So, I went down to Chinatown in NYC, and bought a durian just to double check that I knew for sure what a durian was, and it's not that bad.

lol indeed Stushi,