Thursday, January 21, 2010

Kitchen Notes: Durian's (Slightly) Less Disgusting Cousin, Borneo's Buah Tarap

The Cinema-Mad Sibling and I hate durian. I mean, seriously and passionately HATE it. The bizarre spiny fruit has a lot of fans, but we can't stand it -- not the nauseating stench, the sharp shell, or the slimy lobes of the actual fruit if you somehow manage to open it. As the Cine-Sib says, the fruit in the shell looks disturbingly like some kind of alien embryo in a viscous sac. GROSS!

But, hey! I just found a blog post waxing rhapsodic over something called buah tarap. This fruit from Borneo resembles a durian, but it's a whole different thing -- and apparently it smells a little less horrible. Instead of reeking like decomposing roadkill skunk buried in garbage during August, it "only" smells like a burning tire.

Um ... yeah. I'm still in no rush to try it! I *do* have an idea, though! Since I'm sure that actually burning tires is bad for the environment, let European protesters throw around buah tarap instead. At least the stuff is biodegradable!

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