Some people find durians revolting, where others love them so much. I am the 2nd type of the group. Perhaps, a durian gets its glory name as a king of fruits due to its distinctive size, strong odour, and its spiky skin. No wonder, some places like hotels or apartments ban their guests from bringing durians inside.
I grew up in a country where durians are abundant, and always in season through the year. My whole family loves them. When I was a little kid, we used to buy huge amount of durians from the local farm, and carried them with a Ute or small truck which were enough to feed a whole family of at least 30 people (i.e grandparents, parents, uncles, aunties, and heaps of cousins). This tradition usually happened during the Chinese New Year gathering.
Ever since I moved to Australia, a durian is an expensive delicacy, and it is mostly frozen in the local supermarket. It tastes not as good as the fresh one, of course.
In order to make the most of a durian in Australia, I usually mix them with a liter of plain vanilla ice cream, and put it in the freezer for later enjoyment. Please note that you should not put any sugars because most of vanilla ice cream contains sugar. It would last for at least 1 week if you have it one cup a day.
The best durian I ever had was the Mao Shan King Durian in Malaysia back in 2013 or the local used to called it the “Musang King Durian (English)” or “Durian Raja Kucing Gunung (Malay)”. It has a strong distinctive odor and slight bitterness to it, it feels like the flesh has been fermented and alcoholic.
