A Durian eating party

See this is what happens when I have internet in my room...a ton of blogs. Basically I've got some catching up to do about Indo things now that I can do it while sitting in my room.

As the title suggests, I had my first durian eating party yesterday. For those uniformed, durian is a very...unique fruit. The outside is sharp and spiky, but the defining feature is the smell which I've heard described as 'rotten garlic' to 'smoldering, moldy trash'. Appetizing, no? Personally I don't like the smell, but I don't find it all that bad (a blessing of having a nose that doesn't work so well).

I've had some durian before, but I easily ate more of it yesterday in 20mins than I had in my entire life before that. Probably because I don't smell it so much, I actually like durian quite a bit. It's usually pretty mush and slimy in texture, and while sweet it's got a very unique taste (luckily not exactly like the smell). As you might guess, for foreigners it's pretty much a love or hate relationship for durian; I'm not in the hate group.

I didn't really realize what I was getting into when I committed to go eat some durian and rambutan (another favorite, this one is just good and has no drawbacks). The family that invited me was the driver I've used several times to get to and from Makassar. Through some unimportant details, Daya and her aunt ended up coming too, which I ended up appreciating a great deal because I didn't know what I was getting into. First off was not leaving until later than I expected (which I expected!), but I didn't eat lunch beforehand. In retrospect that was a good choice because all of that durian would have made me sick if I had eaten a meal before.

Anyways the party was really just a chance for them to drive me around and show people that they knew a bule that would hang out for them. In other words I was a paid endorser; paid in durian, rambutan, and lanset. You might think I'm being a little jaded, and I probably am a little bit, but it really was the situation. I know they invited me to be nice (and I really did appreciate it), but I didn't even talk to the family that much, and we stopped a BUNCH of times, always to the thrill of some local.

We also spent a lot of time in their 'garden' that had all kinds of fruit trees in it. That took a while as we picked probably 40ish pounds of rambutan and lanset (these are little fruit, that's a ton!).

Anyways it was an interesting experience, and one that I actually enjoyed a fair amount, and thought I'd share because I know, no one in the US has had a durian eating party! Be glad too, because it would take a week for your house to stop smelling!