78400 Fri Feb 10 13:13:01 -0800 2006 24 2 Los Angeles Area 0 432858 A few months back, I saw a National Geographic special on food taboos, and there was a segment on Durian. My understanding is that it is a fruit from Southeast Asia with such a strong odor that it is forbidden in many hotels, since the smell can linger... thus bumming out hotel guests. Anyways, I forgot about this fruit until yesterday, when I glanced at a durian dessert at a vietnamese market in Chinatown. I didn't realize that it might be available here. Where else can one find durian in LA? I want to find out if it really does have a terrifying odor, or if that was just a bunch of hype to make the show interesting... Fri Feb 10 13:13:01 -0800 2006 0 rastan 1 432860 Not hype. We smelled it in Thailand and a few weeks ago they were giving out samples at Whole Foods in Brentwood. Fri Feb 10 13:18:27 -0800 2006 432858 0 fm4 1 432862 Please see my recs under the "Frozen wontons" thread below...except that I doubt the Koreatown store would have any! Fri Feb 10 13:24:59 -0800 2006 432858 0 Will Owen 1 432866 Any of the Ranch 99 markets will carry them (frozen or fresh) as will the Hawaii Market in SGV (corner of Valley and Del Mar). Phoenix Inn bakery on Valley Blvd. in SGV will sometimes offer Durian pudding. Fri Feb 10 13:29:11 -0800 2006 432858 0 ipse dixit 1 432881 Durian is delicious! You can get it at Bangluck Market in Hollywood or NoHo either frozen or fresh (in season). A whole fresh durian costs a bundle though. Thai people usually go in on one as a group and divide it up. In season, better Thai restaurants will offer it on the menu, usully over sweet rice or ice cream. Durian has a smell like swamp gas (actually it smells like something worse than that, but I won't go into that in mixed company!) However, when it's fresh, the smell is almost unnoticeable. Frozen durian is very stinky. The flavor of durian is heavenly... like the best custard you've ever had in your life. I saw the David Attonborough show on Orangutans where he marvelled that the Orangs would eat stinky durian... if he had tried it himself, he would have known why they love it! One quick anecdote... I had a friend many years ago who was a bit crazy (no... very crazy). He HATED cigarette smoke. This was back in the smoking/no smoking section days in restaurants. We were at Delores coffee shop on Santa Monica in the non-smoking back room. A couple of girls came in and sat at the booth next to us and lit up. My friend started getting irritated and turned around and asked them to please stop smoking so he could eat. One of them blew smoke in his face and gave him a look. My buddy happened to have a wad of frozen durian in his pocket wrapped up in foil. (Don't ask me why he carried durian around with him- he was crazy.) The durian was VERY ripe from being unrefrigerated for so long. He popped it in his mouth and peeked up over the booth and gave them a big grin and said, "HAAIIIIIIIIIII THEERRRRREEE GIRRRLLLSSSS" exhaling deeply as he spoke. A blast like opening the door of the foulest smelling outhouse in the world came out of his mouth. The smokers screamed, "OOOO! NASTY!" and ran out of the restaurant. We made him sit at the table next to ours through the rest of the meal until he could get home to brush his teeth. See ya Steve Link: http://www.hotdogspot.com Fri Feb 10 14:04:44 -0800 2006 432858 0 Steve Doggie-Dogg 1 432889 Durian is the BOMB. The best are durian boba drinks, which are readily available anywhere in Little Saigon in the OC. Definitely a love/loathe kind of thing. I've heard that in some Southeast Asian countries it is used as a torture device (the fruit has a spiky porcupine-like exterior). I guess the smallest whiff would be sheer torture to some, but for me it's pure pungent pleasure. Fri Feb 10 14:30:05 -0800 2006 432858 0 Eunice 1 432895 Being of Chinese ancestry and of being around many people who love the fruit as well as have been to the mountains of NE Thailand a few times and gone to the local markets, I can tell you that it is definitely NOT a bunch of hype. But also keep in mind that as far as I know, most ("good") durians are imported from Asia. So the size and the smell factor are much, much higher there than here. Since durians grow in trees and are pretty DARN heavy, imagine the smell that comes out and lingers when they fall from the tree and SPLATTER to the ground. .... Indeed, the smell is strong. Most people who eat durian for the first time pinch their nose to eat the fruit with an almost avocado-like consistency, because the smell almost gags them. People either love the fruit or they hate the fruit. With that kind of taste & smell, there's really no in between. I guess people make desserts out of them because if you add water, milk, cream, ice, etc., it dilutes the potency of the smell of the fruit. Good, ripe jackfruit also has a smell factor, but the texture is very, very different. It smells a bit putrid, but isn't anywhere near as bad as the rotting smell of durian. If you're lucky, markets such as Hawaii Supermarket and 99 Ranch as well as other Asian markets would store them. Their season is in Spring, from around April - June. Wish you luck in your search for this awful/heavenly fruit (depending on how you look at it...)! Image: http://www.australiantropicalfoods.com/images/durian02.jpg Fri Feb 10 14:43:22 -0800 2006 432858 0 Tmblweed 2 432929 I've never really tried jackfruit - can you tell me how different it tastes from fresh durian? Is it just the texture that's different? Also, pictures don't do durian justice. :-) Fri Feb 10 16:10:28 -0800 2006 432895 0 ipse dixit 3 432939 The texture is entirely different. When you eat durian, it has a creamy texture, similar to how an avocado tastes. When you eat jackfruit, it has a somewhat "crunchy" texture. I believe that it's sweeter than the durian, although perhaps I'm using the word "sweeter" in place of the word "more bearable"...heh. Perhaps the easiest way is to compare an apple vs. an orange (?), in the way that one is "juicier" (more taste in your mouth right away) vs. "crunchier" ? sorry if it doesn't help much. =) But definitely, if you choose to do a comparison between the two, please do a write-up! I'd be really interested in knowing what others think! Fri Feb 10 16:26:18 -0800 2006 432929 0 Tmblweed 4 432944 Is the jackfruit texture similar to that of a starfruit? Image: http://www.wcc.hawaii.edu/art/images/starfruit.jpg Fri Feb 10 16:37:48 -0800 2006 432939 0 ipse dixit 5 432947 Similar, yes. But I find the skin of the starfruit to be somewhat waxy (since it is the outter skin of the fruit) and the skin of the jackfruit isn't as waxy, since it is inside the outer, spiky "shell" of the fruit. Fri Feb 10 16:50:46 -0800 2006 432944 0 Tmblweed 6 432948 Wait, I was under the impression that one does NOT eat the skin of the starfruit (at least, I never did) ... Is this not true? Fri Feb 10 16:53:10 -0800 2006 432947 0 ipse dixit 7 433006 nope, you can eat the skin. Fri Feb 10 20:06:50 -0800 2006 432948 0 Tmblweed 3 432942 Btw, here's a picture of the "innards" of the jackfruit, after they've been picked out (and rinsed and plated and apparently, "flowered", too...): Image: http://www.thaicongenvancouver.org/pic/Taste%20of%20Thailand/F-jackfruit.jpg Fri Feb 10 16:27:40 -0800 2006 432929 0 Tmblweed 3 433032 Jackfruit is nothing like durian, completely different. The texture is more rubbery, maybe similar to blanched octopus or squid. It has a different smell. Also strong, but more musty IMO. You can find canned jackfruit (in heavy syrup) in most Asian markets like Ranch 99. If you wander over to the freezer you might find frozen packs as well. Occasionally I've been able to find fresh jackfruit at Hawaii supermarket in San Gabriel. Incidentally Hawaii also carries fresh durian as well as frozen. As you might expect, the fresh durian is more pungent, so maybe first timers might want to try a frozen durian. No need to buy the whole fruit. You can probably find it boxed in the frozen section. Fri Feb 10 21:46:23 -0800 2006 432929 0 WBGuy 2 433023 Guys, this info deserves to be enjoyed (and contributed to) by hounds all over the country, most of whom will never spot it here. Also, this LA board works best when it's just about finding chow in LA, so that LA hounds (i.e. you yourselves) can enjoy a focused discussion. PLEASE do this sort of discussion on the correct board (in this case, General Topics). if you want to discuss where to buy/eat locally, please bring it back here. if a thread digresses, PLEASE someone start a continuation on the correct board, postinga "heads up" here to let readers along know to make the jump. The Chowhound Team and I don't ask this stuff because we're killjoys. We ask it for the same reason we work behind scenes to throw this party: to help ensure a dynamite resource for hounds like you. Please support our support and help keep things organized, in your own self-interest. ciao Fri Feb 10 21:17:59 -0800 2006 432895 0 Jim Leff 1 432901 Durian, or deserts involving it, can often be found at the Thai Wat food court on weekends during the season; the Buddhist New Year (Songkran) weekend expanded food court generally has people selling whole fresh durians, which in fact look like a mace-like weapon (round, size from softball to basketball, and covered with woody sharp spikes). They sell them in plastic net carrying bags so you don't spike yourself with them; I've been waiting since I first saw this packaging for a report that some North HOllywood gangster had gotten one and killed someone by twirling it around by its carrying handle and clobbering a victim with it. R Gould-saltman Fri Feb 10 15:11:17 -0800 2006 432858 0 Silverlake Bodhisattva 2 432911 . . . and then eaten the murder weapon. Fri Feb 10 15:33:39 -0800 2006 432901 0 silverlake bodhisattva 1 432931 you can purchase durian at most asian markets like 99 ranch. Fri Feb 10 16:12:18 -0800 2006 432858 0 wilafur 1 432933 durian, like any fruit, depends largely on quality/species. like comparing a fraises des bois strawberry's flavor to something genetically engineered that you get from ralphs. typically the high end durian (i forgot the name of the strain) is the long stem fruit that is small (they keep trimming back the leaves and stems to create a tree that yields less fruit but is more intense in flavor) the gigantic "pillow durians" are sorta low end and more sugary tasting probably more suitable for mixing into other desserts. the high end stuff, which costs considerably more, has very deep complex flavors, like aged congnac. in singapore, durian tends to be eaten much more ripe and gloppy with more intense flavors than say, in thailand. i dont think you can really get the high end stuff here in LA. i've only seen the big monster durians. long live the durian! Fri Feb 10 16:13:12 -0800 2006 432858 0 modernist 1 432981 I always see it at the ABC Market on Sunset Blvd just East of Each Park Avenue. But most Asian markets are going to have it anyway. Fri Feb 10 18:48:08 -0800 2006 432858 0 SilverlakeGirl 1 433050 Here is my durian report Link: http://snackish.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_snackish_archive.html Fri Feb 10 23:17:40 -0800 2006 432858 0 Snackish 1 433081 To bring this back to a discussion of chowish places within the confines of this board- my first taste of durian was in ice cream at an asian owned gelato shop in San Francisco. It was pretty good, so when the previous owner of Sri Siam offered me a dessert consisting of pieces of durian fruit in a viscous custard-like substance I was eager to try it. I really wanted to like it! I love fish sauce and shrimp paste, but I gagged on this, tried again and then had to push it away, I was defeated by a fruit!!! Sri Siam Cafe 12643 Vanowen St. (at Coldwater) North Hollywood, CA 91605 818 982 6161 818 982 5252 Sat Feb 11 11:54:49 -0800 2006 432858 0 sel 2 433170 Don't give up on it... just make sure it's fresh Durian and not frozen. Frozen durian is STANKIE! You'll find fresh durian around May. They have it at Wat Thai sometimes in season, and it's always fresh and good there. See ya Steve Link: http://www.hotdogspot.com Sun Feb 12 01:25:06 -0800 2006 433081 0 Steve Doggie-Dogg 1 433354 are available at Lee's Sandwiches Link: http://leessandwiches.com/ Mon Feb 13 19:14:09 -0800 2006 432858 0 obscuro