| There have been many attempts to make the taste | | | | exchanging soft but potent hunks of durian and |
| of durian more palatable or to dilute it. Companies | | | | swapping good jokes or exchanging heated political |
| have, among other attempts, made it into chewy | | | | opinions. The durian shell itself is manly. Hard with |
| candy, flavored ice cream with it, made it into puddings, | | | | strong and quite dangerous large spiky thorns, it could |
| and put it into durian cream cookie wafers to present it | | | | literally be used as a medieval weapon, and probably |
| to an audience wider than its diehard fans But the fact | | | | has. |
| remains that you either like durian or you don't, no | | | | In countries where the durian is prolific, there are many |
| matter where you come from. And if you like it, you | | | | laws and regulations in city and even national charters |
| probably love it, and if not you probably hate it, even in | | | | as to where people can buy, cut, and eat durian. Many |
| cookie form. I myself have tried in vain to think of | | | | hotels forbid their guests to bring durian into the hotel, |
| ways to use it as a secret ingredient. It's just too | | | | and if the room stinks of durian the next day guests |
| unwieldy. (For the record, I have tried to like durian- I | | | | are fined. In some places they could even be arrested! |
| want to like it because I know it must be really special | | | | Durian, without a doubt, is the most controversial fruit in |
| once you know its secret. I have tried five times with | | | | the world. |
| no success- I can barely get the smallest amount | | | | I personally have visited Wai Surat, Thailand's Durian |
| down.) | | | | capital, a large village located in the middle of Ko |
| The stench (or aroma) of fresh durian is so severe | | | | Samui. The locals are proud of Wai Surat, and I |
| that most housewives in Southeast Asia force their | | | | suspect itÕs right up there with the Big Buddah |
| husbands and their friends to eat it only outside- lest | | | | temple in veneration. One cultivator while showing me |
| the smell permeate the rugs and pillows of the house. | | | | his trees also, reverently, showed me the scars on his |
| Actually, if one were to say either way, eating durian is | | | | head where he had been hit by falling durian in the |
| rather a masculine thing to do. Every day in the hottest | | | | past. Even my wife's Thai boxing is not as painful, he |
| parts of Asia are scenes of men gathered out back | | | | said laughing. |