Durian

Last week I was in a grocery store and saw this prickly looking thing- I didn't know if it was a fruit or a vegetable and no one around me could speak English so I never found out what it was, till now. I came across a strange word on one of the tweets I follow and saw a woman accepting a challenge after her group received 10,000 hits. I've attached a picture of the Durian. It's prickly on the outside and you can see the circular looking thing in there- that's the edible part. It's kind of slimy and leaes a film on the roof of your mouth. But the taste is good. The lady who opened it said the odor/aroma really isn't bad!

Here is an article the Smithsonian magazine wrote about Durian:

By Henry Genthe

Smithsonian magazine, September 1999

"To eat it seems to be the sacrifice of self-respect," wrote 19th-century American journalist Bayard Taylor. French naturalist Henri Mouhot was a bit less delicate: "On first tasting it I thought it like the flesh of some animal in a state of putrefaction."

Hate them or — as millions already do — love them, for many durians are nothing less than "hell on the outside and heaven on the inside." That Southeast Asian saying in fact sums up the regard in which Durio zibethinus is held. For many in the region, the spiny, football-size fruit with the divinely custardy, yet potently odoriferous, flesh is as much a cultural icon as it is a treasured, eagerly anticipated food.

Growing on trees in moist, tropical climates throughout Southeast Asia, durians have a limited season and an extremely short shelf life. The trees themselves, sometimes as tall as 130 feet, are pollinated by bats. Three to four months later, the fruit, each weighing several pounds, plummets down, already reeking with its characteristic aroma. Because of the short duration of tasty ripeness, durians are expensive, and purchasing one is a solemn, smelly ritual: only by odor can one determine whether a durian is truly ripe. Not surprisingly for so valued a fruit, all parts of the durian tree are used in folk medicine. The flesh itself is regarded as an aphrodisiac.

And the New York Times had this to say:

...a smell so overpowering that generations of Singaporeans have struggled to find a single description that fits. Among the charitable, printable comparisons: overripe cheese. Rotting fish. Unwashed socks. A city dump on a hot summer's day."

-- The New York Times

I think it must be a February thing, but today is National Dark Chocolate Day!

And here are some deals for the week from Target:

TARGET deals for the week of January 31, 2010

Pepsi Soda Products (2 liter) or SoBe Lifewater (20 oz.), $1.00
B1G1 Sobe Lifewater printable (IE) or printable (FF)
$0.50/2 Pepsi Products Target printable
$0.50/2 SoBe Lifewater Target printable
As low as $0.25 ea. after stacked coupons!

Kraft Shredded or Block Cheese (6-8 oz.), 3/$6.00
Select Kraft snacking items also on sale.
$1/2 Kraft or Cracker Barrel Cheese printable
$1.50 ea. after coupon!

Select Specialty Chocolates (5.1-5.32 oz.), 2/$6.00
–Ghiradelli Filled Squares
–Lindor Truffles 
$1/1 Lindt Lindor Truffles printable (IE) or printable (FF)
$2.00 ea. after coupon