21 July 2010

Like mongrel dogs, unpedigreed fruits are more delightful

"The fruit here is fresh and brandless. With no pedigree to command a premium or warrant the protection of a soft package, the strains on offer sold for less than a song. I asked the price of this bunch in warm red. Three ringgit (US$0.93), said the lady. Peeled, the flesh within bore a slight hue of blush and melted into sweet mush in the mouth, helping to wash down the pungent strength of savoury Durio pulp."
— Budak, in another delish post, with pictures of exotics that must be seen to be believed. These fruits are certainly not supermarket plastic.

4 comments:

budak said...

thank you, Anna.

stinkbeans are powerful legumes that sieve out those with the guts to eat them, and those who can't stomach their strength.

http://www.batplants.co.uk/petaifinal.htm
http://danesh.wordpress.com/2006/09/14/petai-parkia-speciosa-stink-beans/
http://blog.ksaugustin.com/2009/01/02/durian-and-petai-oh-my/

anna tambour said...

Thank you, Budak! First, for telling about those enormous beans. Next, for posting three of the most fascinating links I've ever read. Learning about your fruit bats (who look just like ours) and swidden cultivation was all new to me. The false information and true about petai, combined with its fervent following of discerning gourmets was fun in both blogs, as well as the way the stink comes out. Can I make the leap from the comments on these posts, that if you love durian, you'll love petai? It's kind of confusing, as there are also statements about it being an 'acquired' taste like durian. Acquired? Do you know anyone who changed their minds about these foods?

And finally thank you for even taking the trouble to spell my name correctly. I saw that you corrected it, very kindly.

Now, can I trouble you to either reply here or post another post on your incredible blog, about the other curiosity you mentioned in Redskins – "the pungent strength of savoury Durio pulp."

budak said...

well, Durio = durian. I am fairly indifferent to the fruit, but can appreciate varieties like those we had at that produce stall, which appear and smell unremarkable but dripped with flavour inside. I think liking petai and durian are not mutually exclusive or correlated traits though.

anna tambour said...

duh! I never connected durian with durio. My excuse is that word "savoury", though "pungent strength" is loud and smelly. Sometimes we get durians here from Thailand that must be bred to have no smell, so I've never had the pleasure. The New York Times ran this story about durians bred to be scentless, and the controversy.
"...Durian lovers are at once disbelieving of and horrified by the prospect of a no-smell durian. They complain that the fruit is being homogenized like the insipid tomatoes bred to look pretty behind plastic wrap." The article mentions death by durian for those with high blood pressure, which brings me to another type of death that's intrigued me lately - by star fruit for those with kidney disease. "Intoxication by star fruit in 32 uraemic patients: treatment and outcome" by Miguel Moyses Neto et al., in the journal Nephrology Dialysis, is a paper I recently found so fascinating, that I listed it in "Irresistibles" on my other site. What a way to go.