Friday, December 9, 2011

All Hail Durian King of the fruits


 Friday capped off a no workweek. You can call it a vacation of sorts. Most of the week as you know was spent beside the pool or touring around. Today added a new twist, the Durian.


After a conversation with Mel, we determined that this would be a great day to try one of the things that most Singaporeans love, the Durian. It has quite the reputation and Anthony Bourdain said, “ Your breath will stink like you just finished kissing a dead person”. According to Wikipedia this medieval mace like fruit, “The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks. Why did I want to eat it so much? The love I hear about its fantastic indescribable flavour perhaps, or the challenge of trying such a daring fruit. Either way my love for good fresh food runs deep and I dove right in. 

Mel picked me up at the MRT and we drove to Geylang. Not that you could see much going on at 3 pm, but this is the Red Lantern District of Singapore, apparently dotted with brothels along the way.


We pulled up on a durian stand and were welcomed by a couple gentlemen. We sat down and Mel picked out some of best durian you could get. I ate a ton of this. Possibly too much, as these are very high in calories.

Taken from the Canadian Nutrient Database
Portion: 1 cup
377 calories
4 g Protein
14 g Fat 
77 g Carbs
-       10 g Fibre.
It’s also a significant source of potassium, manganese, copper and many of our B Vitamins.




A picture is worth a ton, how about a video of my first durian experience:





After the King, I was introduced to the queen.  The mangosteen holds this monarch title.  This fruit has a red/purple tough exterior that your crack and inside yields a white, juicy fruit with a consistency similar to that of a mandarin orange. These fruit are very sweet and delicious. This was much lower in calories, about 70 cal per fruit.




We drove around for a bit en route to Orchard Road and a place to grab dinner. I had some sort of spicy soup, had shrimp, squid, cuttlefish and Mel shared a fish ball with me. It was good.

For the rest of the evening I was laid back, I picked up the tickets for Zoukout for Clemens and I. 



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