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Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

nytimes.com

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Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#131

Post by pythonwizz »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #101
3131s wrote: post #72

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 b…

"Durian does not stink of death" 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.

You should have taken a Scandinavian wife and try stinky shark.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#132

Post by chriskanan »

aptwebapps wrote: post #126
magnio wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It puzzles me how the smell of durian, which I find very aromatic, can be disgusting to some people. 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.

I think I have not had good dragon fruit yet. That's the trouble with trying new fruit you see in the market - you never know if it is a good representative.

Try yellow dragon fruit. It is much better than red or white and it is a different species. Red/white taste grassy with a nice texture, but yellow has a sweet tropical flavor.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#133

Post by chriskanan »

philliphaydon wrote: post #73
greggman3 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Our experience is vastly different! While not a fan of dragon fruit, I do eat it relatively ofte…

Try yellow dragon fruit. It actually has a flavor. I find white and red to be bland or maybe grassy tasting. Yellow is sweet.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#134

Post by magnio »

LordAtlas wrote: post #112
magnio wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It puzzles me how the smell of durian, which I find very aromatic, can be disgusting to some people. 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.

Well, when nations that grow durian natively have signs banning durian from public transport and hotels, it's probably a good indication that enough of a majority finds the smell unpalatable. (I've tried durian in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to try to like them. I have failed. There is just no divorcing the taste from the stench.)

It isn't necessary that the majority of the population hates it. Just a sizeable portion like 20% is enough.

Also the puzzling thing is the stark disparity of the perception of the smell between different people. That doesn't happen to, say, seeing. This is akin to having a dress where half the people says it's black while the rest say it's white.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#135

Post by nerdponx »

rcpt wrote: post #76

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.

Jackfruit is pretty uncommon in NY City outside of specialty Asian markets. Durian even moreso.

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.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#137

Post by hackerbabz »

KMag wrote: post #89
9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #27

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'…

My understanding is that this is the same reason why there are many more varieties of banana available in Thailand vs. the U.S.

Bananas in SEA are so much more delicious than in America. They also have very thin skins.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#138

Post by djpr »

greggman3 wrote: post #69
reedlaw wrote: post #47

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 exe…

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…

100% with you: Durian pastries in Singapore are bland. Honestly, I haven't found pastry form of Durian that great, and I love, love, love durian since I was a kid (I'm Indonesian).

Keep in mind that there are over 200 varieties of Durian - some are even red inside, some sweet, some more pungent than others, different notes and textures. The best for me is Musang King variety in Malaysia, esp. when they get a slight alcohol after taste.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#139

Post by pests »

magnio wrote: post #134
LordAtlas wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, when nations that grow durian natively have signs banning durian from public transport and hotels, it's probably a good indication that enough of a majority finds the smell unpalatable. (I've tried durian in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to try to like them. I have failed. There is just no divorcing the taste from the stench.)

It isn't necessary that the majority of the population hates it. Just a sizeable portion like 20% is enough. Also the puzzling thing is the stark disparity of the perception of the smell between different people. That doesn't happen to, say, seeing. This is akin to having a dress where half the people says it's black while the rest say it's white.

What? Did you forget about the dress? Blue or gold? That totally has happened with seeing.

Re: Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward

#140

Post by jinushaun »

LordAtlas wrote: post #112
magnio wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It puzzles me how the smell of durian, which I find very aromatic, can be disgusting to some people. 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.

Well, when nations that grow durian natively have signs banning durian from public transport and hotels, it's probably a good indication that enough of a majority finds the smell unpalatable. (I've tried durian in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to try to like them. I have failed. There is just no divorcing the taste from the stench.)

My parents love durian, but even they have rules against eating it inside. So those signs aren’t related to it being “unpalatable”. It’s just that the smell is so strong that it lingers around like strong perfume. For example, I love curry but don’t cook it at home because the essential oils released makes my home smell for days.
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