Eating Durian

Have you ever heard of the durian fruit? It's a large, spiky fruit from Southeast Asia that is, shall we say, definitely an acquired taste. It has a very distinct aroma which, some people say, smells like death; or smelly feet, or cat poop. Hotels and many other public places in Thailand forbid durian from even being brought on the premises. 

If you're familiar with Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods, you'll recognize him as the foodie who goes around the world eating the strangest foods imaginable. Insects, innards of every kind, rotting foods all get gulped down on his program.

Except the durian. The poor guy just can't eat it. There have been three episodes where he's encountered it and he usually ends up spitting it out.

Here's a clip from his show where one of the crew members tries it:

So, of course, I had to try it. 

I have tried it once before in a coconut smoothie. This time, a friend of mine had the real deal. Fresh durian.

It really does smell like death. It caused other people to flee from the kitchen.

It's reminiscent of creamy, putrid, rotting onions. 

But I have to tell you, there's something captivating about it. I can't put my finger on it, but even with its odor that's just about the most foul thing one can imagine, there's something appealing about it.

This is my third big bite of it.

I want my own TV show.

Caimitos, Cherimoyas and Squid Balls

‘Twas another night of wonderful food at Lao Sze Chuan last night.

This time, we tried something different and ordered the Hot Pot in which a cauldron of boiling, highly-flavored stock is placed on the table. Then lots and lots of raw food items are brought out along with various dipping sauces and you get to dip your selections into the stock and sort of design your own meal. Sort of like the Szechuan version of fondue.

It was a huge amount of food. Here is one plate of food consisting of:
Greens, shrimp, squid, tripe, tofu, tofu skins, fish filets, squid balls, fish balls, mussels and bok choy.

Here is the cauldron with two types of tasty stuff boiling away.

Not pictured is a platter of sliced beef and lamb. It arrived much later for some unknown reason.
Our friend, Ken, is a fan of tropical fruits and he had just received a shipment of caimitos and cherimoyas from California which he very graciously shared with us.

What is a caimito you ask?

What is a cherimoya? I hear you say.

Okay, I’ll show you.

Here is a photo of a caimito (the little fruit) and the cherimoya. Mark Twain once wrote that a cherimoya is “the most delicious fruit known to men.” I might have to agree with him.

It has a white, custard-like flesh that tastes like a combination of bananas, pineapples and strawberries with a very perfumey sensation. I loved it and will buy one whenever I see them.

The little caimito, on the other hand, had a very subtle taste sort of like rose water. However, once cut open, it looked pretty scary.

Afterward, we had our usual durian fruit smoothies. I even asked the server if I could taste a piece of pure durian fruit and I have to say that it was so unbelievably vile, it made me laugh uncontrollably.

Tripe, squid balls, caimitos, cherimoyas and durian.

What a wonderful evening.

Dinner at Lao Sze Chuan - - Again and Again

Last night was our outing to our favorite restaurant, Lao Sze Chuan, so of course I have to blog about it.

Liane proposed a brilliant idea: “Why don’t we order entrées we’ve never had before?”

Seeing that Lao Sze Chuan has the largest menu of any restaurant, ever, we thought that was a fantastic idea. (There’s even an entire new menu section that features frog dishes of every kind, such as “Boiled Frog in Spicy Szechuan Sauce.)

However, crab Rangoon for Miss Healthypants and pot-stickers for Liane are always a mainstay, so there’s that.

We couldn’t do without peapods in garlic. They are just too utterly fantastic and besides, we don’t consider it to be an entrée.

Isn’t it pretty? See why we have to have it every time?

We all agreed that the “Nine Story Pagoda Chicken with Basil Leaves” sounded too intriguing to pass up. (It’s in the upper left)
I don’t quite know what about it resembles a nine-story pagoda. Whatever it was, we liked it and will probably order it again sometime.

We also had spicy noodles with ground pork. It came in a lot of VERY spicy sauce. I ate most of it. We also ordered this fish-and-tofu dish. The fish was great. The tofu, not so much. This was a lot of food for three people. We managed to eat just about all of everything.

Oink. . .

Oink. . .

Of course, afterward I herded us down to the new smoothie place that features smoothies made from the infamous durian fruit.

Here’s a pic of a durian fruit cut in half.

It definitely looks like something from Alien

The moment we walked into the smoothie place, I could smell the musky scent of durian in the air. I ordered a durian-coconut smoothie for us all to try.

Liane and I both agreed that durian is very reminiscent of rotten onions. I don’t even want to think of what eating pure durian must be like. Eating durian that’s alloyed with coconut and smoothie’d is bad enough.
So, there was our evening. It was fantastic.

If any of you are ever in Chicago. . . .

Bizarre Foods

I’ve always enjoyed trying new and strange food items. Last night, I certainly got to fulfill that little proclivity of mine.

Six of us went to Lao Sze Chuan for dinner. Three of my dinner companions had lived in various parts of Asia for a number of years, so everyone was on board with trying the jellyfish as an appetizer. (See pic below. The jellyfish is on the left).

It was "interesting" but I don't know that I'd order it again.

During dinner, we also discussed the notorious fruit called "durian" that’s common in Indonesia and Thailand. I had heard about this strange food item but had never tried it. Three of my dinner companions had actually tried it while living in the far East.

If you don’t know about durian fruit, here’s the deal. It’s a large, green, spiky thing with a creamy inside. What makes durian so notorious is the smell. It has absolutely THE worst smell you can imagine. However, it does have a sweet, rich and appealing taste.

There are hotels in Thailand that won’t allow guests to bring durian into the rooms. The smell gets into the air conditioner system and is very difficult to get rid of. You can’t even bring it into the subway system in Bangkok. I've heard that it'll even set off the smoke alarms on airlines.

If you’ve ever seen the TV series called “Bizarre Foods” with Andrew Zimmern, you may have seen him try durian fruit. On that episode, he was served a beating heart from a frog and ate it, no problem. He was also served snake bile in a shot glass. Again, no problem. But one bite of durian, and he instantly spit it out. It was the one food item that “did him in.”

I was fascinated that three of my friends had actually tried it.

Anyway, after dinner we headed to a nearby Asian place that has smoothies made from just about every tropical fruit you can imagine.

My friend, Ken, who is fluent in Mandarin, asked if they had durian fruit smoothies.

They did!

Ken and Steve both ordered a durian-coconut smoothie. Of course, I had to try it.

Steve said to give the plastic cup a squeeze so that I could get a whiff of the stuff.

OH. . . MY. . . . . .GOD!!!!

It definitely lived up to its reputation. I was hit with a strong smell that instantly reminded me of very fresh cat-poo. It was also reminiscent of rotten onions combined with the odor of a sour, dirty-diaper pail.

Of course, I took a swig and it definitely had a sweet, creamy rich taste on my tongue. However, that putrid smell wafted from my tongue into my olfactory nerves. It was just so horribly unbelievable that I got the giggles. Here’s a pic:

Later, we were in the car and Steve was still drinking his durian smoothie. The entire car was permeated with the smell. It was hilarious.

I swear, this morning, I could still sense that funk in my sinuses.

Jellyfish for an appetizer and a durian fruit smoothie for dessert. Is this an amazing town, or what?

So, if any of you are ever with me when we go to Lao Sze Schuan, there’ll definitely be durian smoothies for dessert.

If anything, the entertainment value, alone, is off the chart.