Durian – Deliciously Smelly!: Indonesia

By Barrie | January 25th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

I remember the first time I ever set eyes upon this fruit, the nectar of some crazy god. It was way before Candika and I were married and I visited her in Yogyakarta at her house. Candika and her brother had just purchased two Durian and were in the process of opening them up.

Previously, I had heard of this fruit’s reputation but was never brave enough to try it. Candika took out one of the sacs and handed it to me. The odour was enough!. Anyway, give it a try when you are in Indonesia and if you are good enough to temper the odour and eat the delicious inner sac, then you are a better man [or woman] than I am, Gungadin!.

Gastronome and epicurean Suryatini N. Ganie wrote an article about one of Indonesia’s favourite fruits. Here’s what she had to say:

Say Yes or No to durian

It’s durian season and throughout the archipelago, even in elite areas of big cities, durian vendors are offering their wares in bamboo baskets and supermarkets are selling neatly packaged, pre-sliced durian.

In more rural areas durian seems to be omnipresent along the road. Heaps of durian are offered from the many durian regions in Indonesia. There are small ones and there are big ones.

Lots of people are encircling the tengkulak duren, or vendors who sell durian in large quantities.

For some people durian has a special place in their hearts. When one is going to northern Sumatra and happens to pass along the way to Tapanuli, people’s love for durian is expressed in a statue and in the name of their home city.

Tarutung, for example, in local Tapanuli dialect, means durian, and so they named the town Tarutung. All along the region durian grows abundantly, providing very sweet and succulent fruit flesh which has become an important item to mix into their much liked alcoholic brew tuak.

Many people, on the contrary, are definitely against durian and even have allergic reactions when smelling the cloyingly sweet fruit flesh. For them it is torture to be near people eating durian.
An aroma of rotten cheese, is one description I once heard of durian. But many people throughout Asia love it and are willing to go far out of their way to purchase the variety and quality of durian they like.

For durain novices it is a bit risky to just buy from the store because a palatable durian is revealed upon opening it. If a durian is bland and tasteless you can do nothing about it.

Durians deteriorate quickly, therefore one should go with somebody with experience picking the good ones, meaning having sweet flesh. Or buy in places where they sell visible durian fruit flesh which should be rather creamy looking.

But in many rural areas they ignore the rather bland fruit flesh and take the pits which can be made into many foodstuffs.
To obtain a very fine texture the pits are thoroughly washed, sliced finely and then sundried. They are then put in a traditional mortar which is called a lumpang and alu. But in more developed areas, an electric grinder is used.

The sweets made from the durian meal exist in many varieties and the most renown is the dodol durian, which differs in preparation and texture.

In the southern regions of Kalimantan and Sumatra dodol durian is made from the pit’s meal, whereas in other regions, for example in southern Java, it is made from the durian fruit flesh. For people keen on nutritional value: durian pits contain calcium, iron, protein, fat and carbohydrates.

Near the village I live in south of Jakarta, the durian market is in full swing this rainy season and one can hear various languages from around the archipelago. But the most dominant of the durian bosses originate from Lampung.

I was told an interesting story about the durian orchards there where elephants roam around looking for ripe durians fallen to the ground. The elephants are very choosy I heard and they never are mistaken in judging delectable durians with creamy and sweet yellowish fruit flesh, and with one step they crush it and enjoy the durian!

Another story: in most rural areas the person who hears a durian fall from the tree and runs toward it is the one who may get it even though it was his neighbor’s tree. That is why my durian trees are always empty because durians mostly fall in the deep of the night, and my family does not have a sharp ear for falling durians.

Suryatini N. Ganie