Not wrong but different - fruit special

Here in AP they have a lot of awesome fruit, and today I (Erlend again, for a blog post special) wanted to write about a few of them.

Before we get to the awesome fruits, I want to tell you about the absolutely WORST fruit I have EVER come across. After a long and exhausting attempt, I could not think of ONE positive thing about this fruit.

I give you: The Durian!

Firstly, the Durian grows on quite large trees, and they can easily weigh up to 2-3 kilos. So if they fall down and hit you, they could kill you.

So what if you're lucky and a falling Durian does not hit you? You're still not safe. Because of the nice climate it is not to rear to see people walking bare foot.

Look at that skin!!! Imagine stepping on that bare foot! Those spikes are hard, long and quite sharp. It would hurt a lot(!) to step on one and it might really mess up your foot.

Okay, you say, so just stay away from Durian trees and don't walk around barefoot...

Yeah, good idea actually, except that the Durian still has a few tricks up its sleeves.

It absolutely STINKS!! The first time I came in to a store that sold them, I literally immediately felt sick and had to leave. I don't know how to describe the smell, except that it is absolutely disgusting.

Ok, so then what happens if you stay away from the tree, keep your flip-flops on and put a clothes pin on your nose, and try to eat it?

Well... The Durian just keeps on delivering horribleness... The meat is slippery with a horrible creamy, and at the same time stringy, consistency that makes me sick even if I manage not to smell it.

So is the flavor the thing that regains some honor for the Durian?

The answer is a loud and clear NO!! It tastes absolutely horrible! Really, really, really bad, bad, bad taste... I get shivers just from thinking abut it.

But on the other hand, it is one of the most expensive fruits here, the locals love it, and I also know a few westerners that like it... but why? I have no idea...

So now that this negative rant is over, lets go to something more positive.

The Rambutan!

This fruit, contrary to the Durian, is just simply awesome!

This fruit, even though it looks funny with its red, hairy shell, is relatively easy to open, and has pure, white, juicy fruit meat in side. It does have a stone in the middle, but around it the layer of meat is thick, sweet and sometimes with a slight hint of sourness depending on the ripeness of it. But that is just nice, and also what makes it different from the Lychee. 

Our daughter loves it. She ate 8 for breakfast this morning :)

Next: The Mangosteen!

This fruit is a surprise.

It looks horrible on the outside. When I first saw it I actually thought is was some sort of Tomato gone bad.

The shell is brown, dry, feels strange to touch and really just looks rotten.

It is also not very nice to open, the shell is thick and sticky. Your fingers will be covered in red gooey stuff that is hard to get of again. On the inside , like you can see in the picture, it looks like a garlic. 

But that is where the similarities with a garlic ends.

It is very, very juicy and has a intense, awesome sweet, but not overly so, flavor. 

Some of the cloves has stones in them, but that is no problem at all, just eat around them. 

So, even though I spared no negative adjective about the Durian, I hope this blogpost didn't seem to negative. 

Except for the absolutely atrocious Durian, almost all the fruit here is fantastic.

Later we might tell you about the purple triangular bananas.