“Oh my god!” Vicky almost squeals. “We should be durians!”
“Oh my god, we totally should!” Erin agrees in a near-identical tone.
The durian is a fruit native to Southeast Asia and often labeled the ‘king of fruits’. It’s yellow-green and spiky in shape, about the size of a bowling ball (and if you’re unfamiliar with the Western game, about the size of a human head). Inside its dinosaur-hide rind, you’ll find the flesh of the fruit in lobes, similar to how an orange is divided inside its peel. Except instead of fibrous cobwebs separating each one, there’s half-inch thick rind between the edible sections of the fruit. These sections are the color of rich butter, with a consistency somewhere between raw meat and canned mushrooms that’s at once soft, vaguely stringy, and of a slight springiness that disappears after the first serious chew.
The flavor is generally indescribable. But let’s make an effort.