Durian: The King of Fruits

I have officially become more Singaporean. Tonight a couple of us had dinner with a local at the China Town hawker center, and then had durian, the weirdest fruit in the world.

durian stand

Chicken and rice (I add hot sauce and sweet soy sauce to mine)

First, the hawker food. We had some chicken and rice from the most popular stall, which was well worth the wait, chicken and pork satay, and drum roll please...fish head. Ok, so Barrett actually ate the weird cheek and face tissue, and I just ate normal fish meat, but it was still fun.

this is the fish, the face features are covered with the sauce

Now, on to the durian. Much mystery surrounds this king of the fruits. Here are a couple of myths I've heard:
1. If you drink beer after eating lots of durian it can kill you.
2. You must eat mangosteen (the queen of fruits) when you eat durian because one heats and the other cools.

William and I holding our mountain cat durian

The smell is pungent. The outside is super prickly. It's cracked open with a knife and eaten at tables
set up on the street near the stand (probably because it's not allowed to be taken on any public transportation due to the smell). Inside the shell are the mega seeds surrounded by a squishier-than-avocado-consistency fruit. The taste is like none other. I swear it tastes slightly like gas from a stove, but the creamy fruit is slightly sweet and heavy. I was not the hugest fan, and I guess I'm slightly allergic since it made my mouth and throat itchy. The three fingers that touched the fruit seem to be stained with the smell. Not only does the smell stay with me, but the taste keeps creeping back too. William, a true Singaporean and lover of durian, told us to make sure we drink lots of water because it can give you a sore throat, which it has. Could this fruit be any weirder? I think not.

the yellow stuff is the fruit