Before You Try Durian...

Have you ever seen a ‘no durian allowed’ sign in a hotel? I saw it once inside a hotel’s elevator in Indonesia and it surprised me because I love the fruit a lot. Durian is banned in many countries in Asia, namely Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. This is due to its distinct and strong smell that might be disturbing for some people. Well, no wonder why durian has such a distinct smell, it is known as The King of Fruit. In fact, the shape, the taste, the texture, and everything about durian is just uncommon. Durian is the most special fruit, especially to me. Not only because of the taste that I love, but also because it wrote me lots of childhood memories that I will never forget.

You can tell durian is a special fruit only by looking from its appearance. It is big, spiky and has a hard-skinned texture on the outside. This hard outer skin protects the fruit from being eaten by bats while also protecting it from crushing when falling off the tree. Inside it there are rows of durian seed, covered by the yellowish flesh of the fruit. One durian fruit can bear around ten seeds inside. The flesh is the only part of the fruit that is edible. It is soft and creamy. Once you put it in your mouth it will melt right away and spoil you with its sweet flavor. The sweetness and creaminess of durian is different from other fruits I know. I often compare the flavor to ‘a sweet margarine’ when describing the fruit to my friends abroad who have never tasted a durian before.

In my hometown in Ambon, Indonesia, we have a Durian Season from March to April every year. During that time, durian fruits are ripen enough that they fall from the tree. Most of the durian trees in Ambon grow naturally in the jungle, that is why the tree can be very tall, normally up to 25 to 50 meters tall. When the fruit is falling from such a high tree, it creates a distinct sound, like ‘traassss—boom’, as the heavy durian fruit crashing through the leaves it sounds ‘traassss’, and ‘boom’ is the sound when it finally hit the ground. You may get scared to imagine such a heavy and spiky and hard-skinned durian falling from such height. But don’t worry, durian has a brain! We, the Ambonese use the word ‘otak’—means brain—when counting durian seed. We believe that the fruit has a brain inside, that it can think before it falls. This is why when it falls, it will never hit your head.

When I was a child, during durian season, my dad often took me and my brother to eat durian in a jungle that belong to our family. I still remember the moment we got out of the car, I could clearly hear the sound ‘traassss—boom’ multiple times, as if we were the long-awaited special guests. My dad’s uncle, Opa Anu, used to make a little cabana to store up the fallen durians. My brother and I liked to stay in the cabana to eat freshly fallen durians. Since the outer part of durian is really hard, we would always ask Opa Anu to open it up for us. Opa Anu could open a durian in a blink of an eye, using his special machete. He carried the machete every day, it was always slung sturdily around his waist. We liked durian so much that as soon as Opa Anu opened the fruit, we would always scramble to eat it first.

Durian is also special on the inside. It contains various nutrition that may be good or bad depending on your physical condition. It is rich in carbohydrate, protein, sodium, potassium, fibers, minerals and vitamin C. However, it is also contained high amount of fats, which is why it is likely to be avoided by people with a health condition. An average-sized durian is equal to 32 grams of fats. That is equal to the fat contained in 500 grams of sirloin streak. The bigger the size gets, the more the fats are. It also has high calories as well. One durian contains more than 1,000 calories. I remember there was a time when I ate too much durian at once, that it made my body feel unwell. It was when I missed eating durian so much, that I ended up eating 5 durians in a row by myself. Shortly after, I began to feel my head become dizzy and my chest was heating up. It was the only unpleasant memory I had with durian, but thankfully after drinking a cup of warm water my body felt better again. Learning from the mistake, I then always tried to freeze the fruit before consuming it to prevent the body-heating.

Durian contains a lot of gas in it too. When you eat too much of it, you can burp so loud and a gush of strong-smelling gas comes out of your mouth. I remember Opa Anu once taught me a special trick that has been used by Ambonese from long time ago to prevent the burping. The trick is, right after eating the durian, we should take the inner skin of durian that has a white and soft surface with small curve structure, pour warm drinking water into it, and drink the water out of the durian skin. Though there is no scientific base for the trick, but it always worked well for me.

Until now, either fresh or frozen, I still love eating durian. Everything about the fruit reminds me of my childhood memories. Although Opa Anu has already passed away, the taste of durian keeps the memory of him alive in my mind. I remember one Ambonese proverb that is often said in my family, “Human should be like a durian: though rough on the outside, but inside, there's a heart made of gold”.