The only thing of interest that I learned in the comments of this entry is that SM comment leaver DesiDancer likes food. Well so do I. The Village Voice reports on a fruit that I am ashamed to admit I have never tried. It is the “Queen of fruits,” the Mangosteen:
Last month, after a long discussion with his father, my friend gave up on his latest business idea: Importing mangosteens into America. The plan was to petition the government, build a greenhouse, and then get rich off of this rare South Asian fruit, which apparently tastes like ice cream and causes perfectly normal people to burst into tears. R.W. Apple wrote in The New York Times: “I can no more describe mangosteens than explain why I love my wife and children.“
Good God. What hole have I been living in? I must have this fruit, I simply must.
Recently, I went to Chinatown to find this dark, purple treat, but the few people who had heard of it told me to stop looking. Mangosteen–widely considered the “queen of all fruit”–carries too many flies to be permitted in the U.S. Because durian, the so-called “king,” was hanging from nearly every fruit stand on East Broadway, I bought one instead. It was $8 and about the size of my head–plus spikes. While mangosteens are said to chill the body, durians are 900-calories a piece and so creamy that last year when a man in Thailand ate four in a row, he passed out and died. The Thai Ministry of Public Health then issued a warning against excessive durian consumption.
Durian looks totally freakish to me. It’s not surprising that it has been described as such:
We cracked open the skin with a steak knife. Inside there were five red seeds, surrounded by doughy goo. I thought it resembled a dead chicken, but my friends had other ideas: “porcelain fetus,” “alien baby,” “dinosaur egg,” “anonymous shit on sidewalk.” The pulp tasted burnt, warm and sweet, like onion custard, and got more syrupy the closer it was to the seeds. One friend loved it: “Durian is sublime,” she wrote me in an email later that night, “I want to inflict it on people.”
Hmmmm. Mmmmmm. Getting back to mangosteens:
The outer shell of the fruit is rather hard, typically 4-6 cm in diameter, resembling a spherical, black cartoon bomb. Cutting through the shell, one finds a very pale, fleshy fruit 3-5 cm in diameter. Depending on the size and ripeness, there may or may not be pits in the segments of the fruit.
Dammit! I always take my lunch to school in a plastic container within my backpack. No mangosteens for me. 
Durians are nast-ay! Of course, that’s just my opinion- I know most Singaporeans & Malaysians disagree vehemently with me.
Immediately made me think: Like Water for Mangosteens.
mangosteens – even the flies love them.
There’s some MLM racket going around that bottles mangosteen juice with about 10 other juices and sells it as a cure-all. MLM sucks snake oil.
They sell durian at our Mexican market here. So should I try, or not?
I’ve spent a lot of time in Malaysia over the years, and the deliciousness of the fruits there could make you cry. But I’ve never put Durian to my lips – I couldn’t get past the notrious smell. But oh, those pineapples! That Malaysian jackfruit! Those loquats! sob!
Yes Andrea, “inflict yourself” and then write a full-description on your blog that I can link to. Minute by minute pics would help. You are braver than I. 😉
Ha! I don’t know how I missed Amardeep’s opening line from the post before this one. So true. So true.
i’m a bad angry little asian girl; i have no desire to try mangosteen, durian freaks me out and jackfruit, though it’s been inflicted on me since birth, will never be something i love. mango. pineapple. those itty-bitty little bananas from kerala. hell, kiwi. but that’s as weird as i get with fruit. this year, i’m trying to learn how to eat lychee without cringing.
THANKS for that pic of the durian, abhi. shudder
I first tried Durian in Jakarta, quite liked it. Hadn’t heard about:
Sorry to be insensitive, but that is pure comedy.
Grissom: Doc, have you got a C of D yet? Doc: I believe the man was murdered. Murdered by Durian. Grissom: Death by Durian? Yes I remember a small jungle village in Flores was once overrun by Durian-toting chefs. Nobody survived. Doc: Yes. I think the Durian entered HERE. Grissom: The mouth? Doc: Yes. Grissom: Doc, you’re brilliant. Better than that MD off Sepia Mutiny any day!
Sorry, I got carried away thinking about fruit. Durian is on sale everywhere in Tooting. But if you want real crazy fruit and food in general, hit the WIndian and African stores. I’m not just talking bush meat.
Ooooh! Sweet memories – mangosteen is awesome, if you get good ones that is. I remember going on vacations to my aunt’s place in Kerala and plucking fresh mangosteens from trees in the backyard.
Jackfruits, mangoes(of every hue and flavor), cocoa, egg fruit, chambangaa (don’t know its anglicized name), bananas (a 100 different kinds)…the list goes on. Sweet memories after all!
I LOVE MANGOOSTEENS…
They are my #1 most loved fruit, with #2 being lychees..
They are amazing things… no joke… gosh… we took a ton from Malaysia on our way to India a few months ago… simply amazing fruits…
YOU MUST TRY A FRESH MANGOOSTEEN! 🙂
mangosteen … I know mango, but “steen” – that’s vaguely like those nasty -stan’s, or the Dutch Steen’s – neither option is something I’d link to something tropical and tasty … needs a makeover. stupid people buy anything – just need to be told it’s in vogue/tony/swish
How about the Ambrosiana: The delicate aroma from this exotic fruit teases the senses. When you bite into the juicy flesh your first sense is amazement , and then euphoria as the flavor explodes in your mouth blablabla…
The durian is a harder sell: How about calling it the Jamaican custard fruit… descriptors would be “robust”, “exotic”, “creamy” etc.
hey.. would you have bought a juicy fillet of the Patagonian Toothfish ?
All this mangosteen talk reminds me of alfonso mangoes…mmm…alfonso…
Durian fruit~~> smells like Hell,tastes like Heaven. saw the sign @ bangkok beach cafe,went in to ‘splore further..Durian fruit wasn’t bad,but also experienced the most surprisingly succulent&sweet mangoes ever..comparable,if not better than Dushera,Langda,Alphonse(sp.?) or your basic garden variety ‘Besht Kwality,saab” desi Aam found in/around Delhi.Also miss the cut&pushed-up salted Ambi found in Madras.In the exotic-fruit battle,mangoes did rule supreme that hazy lazy Thai afternoon..but amrood kaa bhi apnaa hee mazaa hai,kyon? Sorry, fruit definitely reminds me of my Bharat desh mahaan. Carry on.. 😉
Of course Alphonso (or ‘aapos’ as it is called in Mumbai) mangoes are the absolute best. But there are a number of different kinds – neelam, langda, francis – to name a few. But AFAIK nothing tops Alphonso.
I also forgot to add the cashew fruit to my last comment. So how many here have tried Fenny?
There’s a mango called Francis? What the deuce? Is it any good? With a name like that, it MUST be.
I raided Chinatown a couple of weeks ago for what appeared to be last few batches of mangosteen. It is fully worth trying. If you think lychees are hard to peel, try the ‘steen husk. It’s like a softer, smaller version of coconut. If you’re like me and don’t mind getting dirty with the fruity (oh yes, it’s hella fun) then the end result of beet red fingers that taste like sweetness is a bonus. None of the durian smell and all of the lychee juiciness.
My life was incomplete before mangosteen, lychee, custard apple, rambutan, star fruit, kumquats, and dragon fruit. Living in cold Canada I suppose my life is still too often incomplete 🙁
Actually its one of the not-so-nice ones I have tried. I can’t remember the names of the better breeds – especially this small one that gave out sweet nectar.
Completely OT. Has anyone seen the latest clip from the Daily Show?
Check it out. Its called Prayback time.
Here is one quote that sticks out: (uttered by some dude called Jerry Sutton)
“The most religious nation in the world is India. The most irreligious nation in the world is Sweden. We(Americans) are a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes.”
Pffft. 🙂
hmm… I’m having such a fine day… I have to share this
dude, I don’t trust anything you have to say about food, after the last exchange
Thanks for the food-related shout-out Abhi! You’d think I’d look like Tun Tun…
(lower right of the cluster of 3 photos)
Awesome. My dad’s house in Kerala has a tree. They call it “mangoostee” (no ‘n’ at the end). I always get sick eating way too many of them.
Wow, so many browns hatin’ on durian. You either love it or you hate it, there are no in-betweens, I guess. Count me as a durian-phile. The spiky fruit was always a special treat for me growing up in Bangkok. It was like having confection from a tree. It’s great in ice cream and shakes and just as good over some sticky rice doused with coconut cream.
However, my favorite tropical fruit has to be the sapota–ripe, sugary brown ones. There was a sapota tree at my grandma’s house that provided me my fix. These days, I can only find them in cans here in the U.S. What a shame.
Longan, custard apple and jackfruit are also favorite stars of mine from the Southeast Asian fruit world.
Longan, that’s right – not loquats, like I wrote before. Also, rambutans. Yum.
Hmmm… what about cashews? I only ever saw/ate them in my aunt’s house near mangalore. Tastyyyy!!
I knew someone would say this! They say you either love or hate Marmite in their own ads. But I think Marmite’s quite nice as I think durian’s quite nice. There ARE in-betweens!
I’ve never had a mangosteen. I feel duly deprived.
I’m now trying to think of the strangest fruit I’ve eaten … a guanabana, perhaps? Which is apparently a “soursop” in English. Had any soursops lately, anyone?
My favorite thing about lychees is their slangy name in Spanish: mamas chinas.
I’m with Biggie on the durians and sapota, we ate these all the time in Malaysia, its an acquired taste (kind of like your own breath), and once it sticks, you’re stuck. Well, that’s not entirely true…
A couple years ago a distant relative, an aunt, died and her husband, being a man of strange mind and bad judgment (but strong faith), kept her body in the living-room, in a coffin, for a few days in the belief that his prayers would be answered and God would bring his wife back to life. This went on for more than a few days… We just happened to be in town, visiting when all this was going down and heard the news from another distant relative, a cousin who offered to take us to the house to pay respects. He picked us up and on the way, he bought a couple durians and other fruits so we wouldn’t arrive empty-handed… When we arrived, my uncle was still wearing the same suit from the funeral a few days earlier and my aunt was still in the coffin and, to the amazement of everyone, hadn’t yet decomposed in the heat. Praise be, a miracle, Uncle, let’s go eat some fruit… You guys know what durian smells like? Strong, pungent odor, not like stinky cheese but like a stinky gas leak or, a leaky… For whatever reason, as we were eating the durians, my aunt’s body, well, the fluids from aunt’s body started leaking out of the coffin, as they had apparently been pooling underneath her for days. The smell hit the kitchen and although it registered in our heads that these were some strang smelling durians, we ate them with relish… You think durian looks bad when it’s first cut open, imagine what it looks like when you throw it up.
So, I don’t eat durian as much nowadays, rarely if ever, but it’s a good fruit and I’m probably the only person in the world who has lost his acquired taste for it. Nevertheless, give it a try, don’t let my story scare you away… Hahahahahahhahaha.
try living in a country where the durian is the national fruit. yup, i live in malaysia. pity me. i appreciate it.
alfonso mangoes… hmm.. the king of mangos.. after 20 yrs of trying, we finally got the damn tree to go… now it produces 6 mangos a year.. do you know how much each alfonso is worth :)… beats the kent mangos anyday…
Rambutan rocks, and lychee is luscious…but one of my favorite Malaysian fruits is mata kuching (cat’s eye). Kind of like rambutan – they come in bunches attached to twigs. Peel off the thin brown covering to reveal a dark pit in white flesh (hence the name.)
One of my favorite desserts of all time (and I’ll order it if it’s on the menu) is pisang goreng – fried banana, but it really only works if you are using any of the smaller varietals of banana. Mmm…. pisang mas.
My father tells me all the time that I’m not really Malaysian because I can’t get anywhere near durian. What can I say? I’m smell-sensitive.
More mangoroticism:
adding my two cents: I’ve eaten a lot of weird stuff, but I could never get past the durian smell. I think the odor becomes more, uh, pungent when it’s ripe and fresh, so the imported versions don’t smell quite as bad. Like rotten eggs. My mom would make my dad eat it outside the house.
Mangosteen is truly heaven. Again if it’s ripe and fresh, it shouldn’t be so hard to open up the purple husk. Firmly pushing in and pulling apart should do it. If it doesn’t, it’s not really ripe enough. I have yet to find it in the US though. Even in chinatown. Suggestions?
Also, anyone had an ambarella?
mmm, fruits….I them raw, nah i mean? welikeitraw.com
durian is awesome! i got attached to this fruit while living in malaysia for a short while. my professor once described durian as “eating the most wonderful custard while sitting on a public toilet.”
yum!
Fruit detective David Karp loves it too.
http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_26/findingaforbidden.html
As a Malaysian, I have to add in something. We grow up revering the gorgeous smell of durian. It used to be seasonal and the annual durian season was a highlight for me. Now agricultural wonders allow for durian all year but I will urge to always ask for the finest durian at the stall (B24 is one of the best variety). Once you remove the thorns, then feast on the creamy custard-like pieces of fruit. A sweet sublime feeling will assault you. We are so mad about it we have durian cake, ice-creams, biscuits and what have you.
if anyone has doubts about the overpowering smell of durians, here’s a good one – my aunt once bought a durian and left it in the bottom shelf of her fridge. we had to eat bread with durian-flavoured butter (taken from the topmost shelf) for the rest of the week.
Would love to get my hands on this stuff.
Huh. I missed this post the first time around, because I was in Australia, snacking on mangosteens. (I bet you’re all jealous.) I was going to write a blog post about some guy I overheard at Walgreens talking about how his friend has joined the cult of the mangosteen-oil salesmen. (Go Fighting Mangosteens!) So I was looking for that R.W. Apple article on mangosteens and discovered that as usual, The Mutiny is way ahead of me.
Mangosteens are my favorite fruit, but I’ve never managed to find any in the U.S., due to the ban, I guess. I’ve found them in Toronto in Chinatown and on Gerard St., and in Australia I found them in Sydney’s Chinatown and at the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, if that helps anyone in colder climes searching for their mangosteen fix. If I recall correctly, mangosteen season in Sri Lanka is around July/August, so maybe your chances of finding one would be better around that time. Happy mangosteen hunting!