I live in Cambodia where all of these fruits are available, and more. I like every fruit mentioned, except salak, and eat many of them every day.
This author comes off as a deeply uncultured American giving a generic impression of a drunken 3-5 day visit to SEA. There are so many errors in this article it's unreal.
Jackfruit does not have a "jagged sheath" (that's durian).
Dragon fruit is only mushy when it's badly bruised or overripe, and there are other varieties that are sweeter and richer than the white variety.
Durian does not "stink of death".
Salak are normally imported from Indonesia, as far as I know. Maybe the author is thinking of salacca wallichiana, which is related but tastes very different?
Describing a langsat as a "demure cousin" of the lychee is a totally meaningless way of saying that they belong to the same order of plants.
Author is probably being unnecessarily hyperbolic in order to make the piece interesting.
To me, dragon fruit flesh is similar to that of Asian pears, firm, crisp, sweet and refreshing. The tiny black seeds are akin to strawberry seeds in that they add to the texture but are otherwise unnoticeable.
I had my first taste of a dragon fruit a couple of years ago on a Cathay Pacific flight (amazing inflight meals btw) and was like where have you been my whole life. I knew I had to get some when I returned to the US. I quickly learned that most grocery stores in US do carry them... for about $6 per lb. They’re not cheap treats.
It does stink to some (many?) people, much the same way some people think that cilantro tastes like soap. Which is why you see "no durian" stickers in public places throughout Asia.
Hannah Beech has been an SEA bureau chief at the NYT and, before that, Time Magazine for something like a decade, and wrote for Time Asia for years prior to that. I don't think "deeply uncultured American" helped your argument, and note that most of the fruit-related points you made here were challenged downthread.
Sounds like you're the one spreading lies. Durian is without a doubt, the smelliest, nastiest fruit I have ever had the displeasure of ever smelling or eating in my life. My wife is from SEA and literally laughed out loud when I showed her your post.
Check yourself before you try to check others.
I once went to a durian place in Malaysia. As we approached (they hadn't told me where we were going, it was a surprise), my first thought from the smell was that perhaps there was an animal dead off the side of the road.
YMMV, but I find that the taste of salak varies wildly. Sometimes they're mealy, dry, astringent and generally unpleasant. Sometimes they're crisp and tart like a tropical apple, and thoroughly delicious.
never in my life i had mushy dragon fruit and ate it multiple times a week when lived in Asia for years, i like it cooled from fridge
I've never understood what's even stinky about durian, it just has its own odor like any other fruit, nothing deserving special treatment media give it, must be some durian wholesalers conspiracy trying to make it more interesting than it actually is
Dragon fruit can be grown in California, Florida, and Hawaii and is not "bland mush with tiny seeds that can require floss to dislodge". The author must have had a bad one. They can be extremely sweet. The seeds are so small that they go down without noticing and I've never had to use floss. My favorite is a variety with deep red flesh.
Mangosteen is so far from its depiction---"to eat a pile of mangosteens is an exercise in disappointment"---that I wonder what kind of pile the author ate. In the US, imported mangosteens can run $20 a pound, so getting a few bad ones would be a disappointment. I suppose many vendors would issue a refund for the bad ones. But in Thailand a pile of mangosteens is so cheap that you wouldn't bother. They are exquisite, almost the fruit equivalent of ice cream (they taste better chilled). It's no wonder they call it the queen of fruits.
Durian likewise deserves its designation as king of fruits. Most people, myself included, are repulsed on the first encounter. But if you can get over the initial shock, you will enjoy the most flavorful fruit with custard-like texture. Its flavor can be described as a combination of many other fruit flavors with a complexity only matched by good coffee and dark chocolate.
Jackfruit is cheap and abundant in Mexican and Asian supermarkets in the US. The trouble is peeling and finishing a whole one. Some stores may sell wrapped pieces if you just want a taste. But if you have some guests and time to work with gloves and a knife, eating a whole jackfruit is a memorable experience.
I don't dislike Dragon Fruit but having had 30 or so of them in SE Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan) I've never had one that was "extremely sweet". All of them were relatively on the bland every place I had one. It's good to know they can be sweet but I'm curious why finding a sweet one is so rare.
As for the seeds I agree. It's like eating kiwi seeds.
Mangosteen is great! No idea why the author had so much hate.
Durian though ... well I've tried it about 7-8 times and I get that it "tastes" good but I still don't get it. For example in Singapore there is a chain of cream puff stores that carry durian and vanilla cream puffs. To my "unrefined" palette they taste 95% the same but one stinks so if I was to go again I'd choose the vanilla that doesn't stink vs the durian that does. I'm sure I'll try them again but I suspect my reaction will be the same. Tastes fine (like vanilla custard) but why put up with the stink when I can just have vanilla custard.
That said, last summer when I was in Malaysia was the first time the smell started not being so repelling so (a) I'm getting used to it (b) they were in season (c) like the cat virus they've reprogramed my brain :P
The other problem is lack of variety due to transportation problems. You're limited by what travels well, and when it's hard enough to get one type overseas without problems, you probably aren't sending multiple varieties.
A lot of people have heard by now that there are many interesting types of bananas overseas, but they don't travel well enough to reach other countries. The same goes for other fruits. I remember once reading about a durian that has nearly none of the repulsive flavours, but they just aren't common enough to send away from local markets (I think it was in Malaysia).
On the other hand though some fruits freeze decently well, durian is one of those. Especially if you're cooking with it the peeled pieces are great.
Re: mangosteens, the author isn't saying mangosteens taste disappointing, they're saying that finding lots with the 'mustard blight' is disappointing.
If you can pick your own, though, they're in my experience pretty avoidable: go for ones that are purple, not black, and avoid any that have traces of yellow leaking from the top.
I've heard a lot about dragon fruit over the years and seen plenty of hype about it. I've been on what feels like a lifelong quest to find good dragon fruit, spread over many years and many countries, including throughout SE Asia. Somehow, it's all been just watery in flavor with the texture of soft watermelon.
>Dragon fruit can be grown in California, Florida, and Hawaii and is not "bland mush with tiny seeds that can require floss to dislodge". The author must have had a bad one. They can be extremely sweet. The seeds are so small that they go down without noticing and I've never had to use floss. My favorite is a variety with deep red flesh.
I've been trying to find a good one in the states, so far no luck. I've only tried ones with the red flesh. The ones I had weren't bad, they were just flavorless. Not sweet at all. Kind of refreshing, but nothing special.
The primary limiting factor in distributing these is not that they're hard to eat: pineapples are a pain too, but they're available everywhere, while many of the fruit listed (eg. rambutan, salak/snakefruit, langsat/duku) are trivial to peel.
Instead, it's simply that they don't transport well. Most tropical fruit available in the West are picked raw, kept refrigerated and chemically ripened on arrival, but this isn't possible for most of the fruit listed, certainly not mangosteens or langsat/duku.
In a trip to central Washington, I bought a flat of Pluots (plum/apricot hybrids), and they were one of the most profound things I have ever eaten. So sweet and juicy, they almost burst like water balloons when you took a bite.
Less than four hours away from where they are grown, I have yet to find any varieties with the same magic available in grocery stores. They good ones are simply too delicate and too short lived.
It ends up being worth the trip every year to go when they are in season.
In Virginia we have pawpaw fruit that taste like custard, but must be eaten soon after picking since they bruise very easily and don’t store or ship well.
Flavor Queen and Flavour king varieties. I grow both at home and at the orchard.
More profound to me are the European gage plums and esp the lovely yellow mirabelles. I also planted medlars and can’t seem to find anyone interested. Medlar Jam is sublime.
Exotic fruits have been interesting to me in a while, and I hope to get my hands on some in my own country. For others interested, there's a channel which is all about exotic fruits and foods in general (including Thai ones), and his videos are always extremely informative and conscious[0].
Longan and papaya are pretty easy to find in New Orleans if you know where to look.
In the Indian subcontinent a common phrase is "the jackfruit is still on the tree and you've already put oil on your lips/mustache" meaning don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched.
I'm a homebody but great fruit I will travel for. The absolute best fruit is ripened on the plant to the point of being so soft that it would be destroyed if handled. I drive hours to various wild blackberry bushes around Northern California and eat them right off the bush -- just the act of separating them from the bush basically splits them in half so they could never be sold commercially.
These are all pretty easy to find in Los Angeles, New York, and the Bay. How many other things do you see if you actually venture to SE Asia?
Central America has all kinds of things that I never see here, eg. canistel or black sapote, as well as variants of mango, corn, and banana that don't sell in the US.
There are many more varieties, as you said. I am literally about 100 meters from maybe 5-6 varieties of bananas and 10-12 varieties of mangoes. There are 4 varieties of dragon fruit here too, all excellent.
The cheaper varieties of mangoes are similar to what Americans are familiar with, but much more consistent. Mangoes grow so readily here that in season I can get a kilo for $0.25 and they're always perfectly ripe. There is a more expensive variety that is purely sweet and has a more gelatinous texture, and it feels "decadent" in the same way that a rich chocolate cake does.
The bananas are way better, especially some of the smaller varieties that have a thicker consistency. There are cart vendors everywhere here that grill those small bananas and sell them on sticks.
And then there are many others in the markets, a lot of which don't have common names in English but all of them are great really. It's so cheap that in my diet I eat fruit instead of rice or bread as a carbohydrate source. Even most imported fruits are pretty reasonably priced, so you can still easily find things like apples, champagne grapes, cherries, etc.
Here in Australia, you can actually get fresh durians!
There are only 50 odd trees in the country, near Darwin, so the fruit cost a mint by the time they are flow to Melbourne and Sydney. They're good. The consensus is better than the Thai ones, but I hang around Malaysians, who have a low opinion of Thai durians.
Around 1980, there was talk of growing tropical fruit in Northern Australia. Our seasons are out of phase with Asia's, so that would have made a lot of sense. I don't know why it didn't happen.
There is one problem that the article doesn't mention: people who haven't been to Southeast Asia tend to mistake the durian smell for a gas leak, and call the fire brigade. You have to be careful where you take them in the west.
Thai durian is nothing when compared to the smell and taste of Malaysian durian.
I love durian but the smell can be overpowering. I left a few in my car for an afternoon, parked in an underground garage, to bring to my family after work. I had to drive with the windows down for 2 weeks.
I'm curious is aversion to durian is at least somewhat genetic, similar to cilantro and broccoli.
I spent 6 weeks traveling around Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam), including several days in Bangkok.
I ate a metric ton of durian, jackfruit (my favourite), mangostein, lychie, and so forth.
I never noted any negative durian odour, and I just assumed that "it must always be fresh in Southeast Asia", and any reports are based on stale or older fruit after it's travelled internationally...
I once read a description of having durian as something like "eating vanilla while standing next to a trash heap" and I have to say that's stuck with me as fairly accurate. There's a good flavour with some pretty bad bits but over time you learn to ignore or even like them.
I quite like it, especially with dairy, but it seems to upset my stomach (durian burps aren't great).
Jackfruit is one of the most nutritious and colon healthy vegetable on the planet. It is full of healthy fiber and keeps you feeling full long after unlike other vegetables. Many families in South india cosume lot of jackfruit in the season. https://thejackfruitcompany.com/jackfruit-101/
Another fun Thai fruit: ตะขบ (`da kop`), which are these tiny custard-like berries that literally spoil within hours after picking them. They make great shade trees, so you can often find them growing over a road in residential areas, and just pick a couple to eat on the spot. You'll never find them in a store, but they're a quintessential part of childhood here.
> the durian would still probably have the highest grapple factor among Southeast Asia’s endemic fruits. Thai exports of the fruit are mostly destined for China, where consumers tend to be more willing to work for their meals.
Actually, Durain is not that hard to process, a chopstick or a screwdriver can do the job easily, can't be harder than opening a whole Jamón.
Last year, staff at the University of Canberra library were forced to evacuate the building due to a suspected gas leak, but a search revealed the stench was in fact caused by the fruit.
That's what I've always associated the smell of durian with --- not stinking or rotting as others often say, but "gas leak". Not surprisingly, the same compound is responsible for both: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanethiol
Is work being done to develop easy to peel, low seed count cultivars of various exotic fruits like these? I can only imagine that their consumptive experience is similar to what Native Americans dealt with when they first encountered bananas tens of thousands of years ago.
These fruit are hardly unique to Thailand and I ate them all as a kid in Malaysia (which of course abuts Thailand) and Singapore. I believe they are all available in other nearby countries as well. National borders are pretty arbitrary.
[+] [-] 3131s|5 years ago|reply
This author comes off as a deeply uncultured American giving a generic impression of a drunken 3-5 day visit to SEA. There are so many errors in this article it's unreal.
Jackfruit does not have a "jagged sheath" (that's durian).
Dragon fruit is only mushy when it's badly bruised or overripe, and there are other varieties that are sweeter and richer than the white variety.
Durian does not "stink of death".
Salak are normally imported from Indonesia, as far as I know. Maybe the author is thinking of salacca wallichiana, which is related but tastes very different?
Describing a langsat as a "demure cousin" of the lychee is a totally meaningless way of saying that they belong to the same order of plants.
[+] [-] wenc|5 years ago|reply
To me, dragon fruit flesh is similar to that of Asian pears, firm, crisp, sweet and refreshing. The tiny black seeds are akin to strawberry seeds in that they add to the texture but are otherwise unnoticeable.
I had my first taste of a dragon fruit a couple of years ago on a Cathay Pacific flight (amazing inflight meals btw) and was like where have you been my whole life. I knew I had to get some when I returned to the US. I quickly learned that most grocery stores in US do carry them... for about $6 per lb. They’re not cheap treats.
[+] [-] blago|5 years ago|reply
It does stink to some (many?) people, much the same way some people think that cilantro tastes like soap. Which is why you see "no durian" stickers in public places throughout Asia.
[+] [-] aptwebapps|5 years ago|reply
Durian's spikes are pointier, but you can call both of them jagged.
[+] [-] tptacek|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Der_Einzige|5 years ago|reply
Sounds like you're the one spreading lies. Durian is without a doubt, the smelliest, nastiest fruit I have ever had the displeasure of ever smelling or eating in my life. My wife is from SEA and literally laughed out loud when I showed her your post. Check yourself before you try to check others.
[+] [-] eythian|5 years ago|reply
I once went to a durian place in Malaysia. As we approached (they hadn't told me where we were going, it was a surprise), my first thought from the smell was that perhaps there was an animal dead off the side of the road.
Tasty though.
[+] [-] 9nGQluzmnq3M|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atomi|5 years ago|reply
I don't know when the branding changed but I'm willing to bet some form of biopiracy was involved in the trade.
[+] [-] magnio|5 years ago|reply
Also dragon fruit is a 'bland mush'? I've must have been eating the wrong fruit. There's also a red dragon fruit which is a little tastier.
[+] [-] Markoff|5 years ago|reply
I've never understood what's even stinky about durian, it just has its own odor like any other fruit, nothing deserving special treatment media give it, must be some durian wholesalers conspiracy trying to make it more interesting than it actually is
[+] [-] reedlaw|5 years ago|reply
Mangosteen is so far from its depiction---"to eat a pile of mangosteens is an exercise in disappointment"---that I wonder what kind of pile the author ate. In the US, imported mangosteens can run $20 a pound, so getting a few bad ones would be a disappointment. I suppose many vendors would issue a refund for the bad ones. But in Thailand a pile of mangosteens is so cheap that you wouldn't bother. They are exquisite, almost the fruit equivalent of ice cream (they taste better chilled). It's no wonder they call it the queen of fruits.
Durian likewise deserves its designation as king of fruits. Most people, myself included, are repulsed on the first encounter. But if you can get over the initial shock, you will enjoy the most flavorful fruit with custard-like texture. Its flavor can be described as a combination of many other fruit flavors with a complexity only matched by good coffee and dark chocolate.
Jackfruit is cheap and abundant in Mexican and Asian supermarkets in the US. The trouble is peeling and finishing a whole one. Some stores may sell wrapped pieces if you just want a taste. But if you have some guests and time to work with gloves and a knife, eating a whole jackfruit is a memorable experience.
[+] [-] greggman3|5 years ago|reply
As for the seeds I agree. It's like eating kiwi seeds.
Mangosteen is great! No idea why the author had so much hate.
Durian though ... well I've tried it about 7-8 times and I get that it "tastes" good but I still don't get it. For example in Singapore there is a chain of cream puff stores that carry durian and vanilla cream puffs. To my "unrefined" palette they taste 95% the same but one stinks so if I was to go again I'd choose the vanilla that doesn't stink vs the durian that does. I'm sure I'll try them again but I suspect my reaction will be the same. Tastes fine (like vanilla custard) but why put up with the stink when I can just have vanilla custard.
That said, last summer when I was in Malaysia was the first time the smell started not being so repelling so (a) I'm getting used to it (b) they were in season (c) like the cat virus they've reprogramed my brain :P
[+] [-] hnick|5 years ago|reply
A lot of people have heard by now that there are many interesting types of bananas overseas, but they don't travel well enough to reach other countries. The same goes for other fruits. I remember once reading about a durian that has nearly none of the repulsive flavours, but they just aren't common enough to send away from local markets (I think it was in Malaysia).
On the other hand though some fruits freeze decently well, durian is one of those. Especially if you're cooking with it the peeled pieces are great.
[+] [-] 9nGQluzmnq3M|5 years ago|reply
If you can pick your own, though, they're in my experience pretty avoidable: go for ones that are purple, not black, and avoid any that have traces of yellow leaking from the top.
[+] [-] fiblye|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phaus|5 years ago|reply
I've been trying to find a good one in the states, so far no luck. I've only tried ones with the red flesh. The ones I had weren't bad, they were just flavorless. Not sweet at all. Kind of refreshing, but nothing special.
[+] [-] bookofjoe|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pm90|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 9nGQluzmnq3M|5 years ago|reply
Instead, it's simply that they don't transport well. Most tropical fruit available in the West are picked raw, kept refrigerated and chemically ripened on arrival, but this isn't possible for most of the fruit listed, certainly not mangosteens or langsat/duku.
[+] [-] KMag|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] legitster|5 years ago|reply
In a trip to central Washington, I bought a flat of Pluots (plum/apricot hybrids), and they were one of the most profound things I have ever eaten. So sweet and juicy, they almost burst like water balloons when you took a bite.
Less than four hours away from where they are grown, I have yet to find any varieties with the same magic available in grocery stores. They good ones are simply too delicate and too short lived.
It ends up being worth the trip every year to go when they are in season.
[+] [-] mjklin|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wenc|5 years ago|reply
Apparently they don't travel or keep well, so supermarkets almost never stock them.
[+] [-] jelliclesfarm|5 years ago|reply
More profound to me are the European gage plums and esp the lovely yellow mirabelles. I also planted medlars and can’t seem to find anyone interested. Medlar Jam is sublime.
[+] [-] pvaldes|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] claudiawerner|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChsbD6Clp-ZPqKwXJR3V7DQ
[+] [-] selimthegrim|5 years ago|reply
In the Indian subcontinent a common phrase is "the jackfruit is still on the tree and you've already put oil on your lips/mustache" meaning don't count your chickens before the eggs have hatched.
[+] [-] ponker|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rcpt|5 years ago|reply
Central America has all kinds of things that I never see here, eg. canistel or black sapote, as well as variants of mango, corn, and banana that don't sell in the US.
[+] [-] 3131s|5 years ago|reply
The cheaper varieties of mangoes are similar to what Americans are familiar with, but much more consistent. Mangoes grow so readily here that in season I can get a kilo for $0.25 and they're always perfectly ripe. There is a more expensive variety that is purely sweet and has a more gelatinous texture, and it feels "decadent" in the same way that a rich chocolate cake does.
The bananas are way better, especially some of the smaller varieties that have a thicker consistency. There are cart vendors everywhere here that grill those small bananas and sell them on sticks.
And then there are many others in the markets, a lot of which don't have common names in English but all of them are great really. It's so cheap that in my diet I eat fruit instead of rice or bread as a carbohydrate source. Even most imported fruits are pretty reasonably priced, so you can still easily find things like apples, champagne grapes, cherries, etc.
[+] [-] nerdponx|5 years ago|reply
Dragonfruit exists mostly as a frozen smoothie ingredient, although you can get it seasonally as well.
Lychee is somewhat available seasonally, longan never or almost never.
And I've never seen a Pomelo outside of SE Asia.
[+] [-] thisrod|5 years ago|reply
There are only 50 odd trees in the country, near Darwin, so the fruit cost a mint by the time they are flow to Melbourne and Sydney. They're good. The consensus is better than the Thai ones, but I hang around Malaysians, who have a low opinion of Thai durians.
Around 1980, there was talk of growing tropical fruit in Northern Australia. Our seasons are out of phase with Asia's, so that would have made a lot of sense. I don't know why it didn't happen.
There is one problem that the article doesn't mention: people who haven't been to Southeast Asia tend to mistake the durian smell for a gas leak, and call the fire brigade. You have to be careful where you take them in the west.
[+] [-] refurb|5 years ago|reply
Star fruit are one of my favorites. Kind of a crunchy, tart apple flavor.
[+] [-] neonate|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thewileyone|5 years ago|reply
I love durian but the smell can be overpowering. I left a few in my car for an afternoon, parked in an underground garage, to bring to my family after work. I had to drive with the windows down for 2 weeks.
[+] [-] Nursie|5 years ago|reply
Sad I missed the fruit market though, I bet they have a massive variety of banana cultivars. I tried a couple I'd never had before when over there.
[+] [-] deanCommie|5 years ago|reply
I spent 6 weeks traveling around Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam), including several days in Bangkok.
I ate a metric ton of durian, jackfruit (my favourite), mangostein, lychie, and so forth.
I never noted any negative durian odour, and I just assumed that "it must always be fresh in Southeast Asia", and any reports are based on stale or older fruit after it's travelled internationally...
[+] [-] hnick|5 years ago|reply
I quite like it, especially with dairy, but it seems to upset my stomach (durian burps aren't great).
[+] [-] mohankumar246|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 3131s|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maguay|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 9nGQluzmnq3M|5 years ago|reply
https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%82%E0...
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] avcdsuia|5 years ago|reply
Actually, Durain is not that hard to process, a chopstick or a screwdriver can do the job easily, can't be harder than opening a whole Jamón.
[+] [-] PakG1|5 years ago|reply
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/europe/durian-germany-evacuat...
[+] [-] userbinator|5 years ago|reply
That's what I've always associated the smell of durian with --- not stinking or rotting as others often say, but "gas leak". Not surprisingly, the same compound is responsible for both: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanethiol
[+] [-] oh_sigh|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gumby|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] decafninja|5 years ago|reply
As for me, while there's certain fruit I do like a lot, I'm far less willing to put in the effort and often I just don't bother.