Flavour and odour
Sign forbidding durians on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit.Writing
in 1856, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace provides a
much-quoted description of the flavour of the durian:
A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general
idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to
mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous
dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which
nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy.[14]
Wallace cautions that "the smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at
first disagreeable"; more recent descriptions by westerners can be
more graphic. The English novelist Anthony Burgess famously said
that dining on durian is like eating vanilla custard in a latrine.
Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:
... its odor is best described as
pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can
be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the
raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels,
subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast
Asia.[15]
The unusual odour has prompted many people to search for an
accurate description. Comparisons have been made with the civet,
sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray, and used surgical
swabs.[16] The wide range of descriptions for the odour of
durian may have a great deal to do with the wide variability of
durian odour itself. Durians from different species or clones can
have significantly different aromas, and the degree of ripeness has
a great effect as well.[17] In fact, three scientific analyses of
the composition of durian aroma from 1972, 1980, and 1995 each
found a different mix of volatile compounds, including many
different organosulfur compounds, with no agreement on which may be
primarilly responsible for the distinctive odour.[18]
This strong odour can be detected half a mile away by animals, thus
luring them. In addition, the fruit is extremely appetising to a
variety of animals, from squirrels to mouse deer, pigs, orangutan,
elephants, and even carnivorous tigers. While some of these animals
eat the fruit and dispose of the seed under the parent plant,
others swallow the seed with the fruit and then transport it some
distance before excreting it, the seed being dispersed as the
result.[19] The thorny armored covering of the fruit may have
evolved because it discourages smaller animals, since larger
animals are more likely to transport the seeds far from the parent
tree.[20]
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian
