Durian

Our dear friend Sonia is visiting! One of the things we like to do together is visit Asian grocery stores and try new foods. At the store a few days ago I saw Durian Wafer Cookies. A friend of ours considers durian to be so good that she calls it "the fruit of heaven." We had to try them!

Well, besides being known as "the king of fruits" in some parts of Asia, it is also a fruit that is banned from being on public transportation. Why? IT STINKS! We got in the car after making our purchases, and I opened up the wafers. The durian odor immediately overtook us.

This is how Richard Sterling, a travel and food writer, describes the stench: "...its odor is best described as pig-[poop], turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock."

Despite our gagging and coughing, we still planned on trying them. We each ate one, and to be honest, we didn't enjoy them. Being one who doesn't like to throw away food yet doesn't like her suite to stink, I put the wafers in a Ziploc bag when we got home and stuck them outside on our stairs. They were, of course, completely forgotten. The next morning we discovered our wafers had been tasted by some outside friend. (Can you see the hole?) Yet the friend only ate half a wafer! The stink is so strong even an animal can't manage it!