durian

You cannot pack durian so it smells like nothing. Anyone who promises that has never opened a bag that leaked in a hot car. What you can do is contain

The thorns give D14 away before the flesh does. They are big and hooked, and I have the scars to prove this durian does not want to be opened casually.

Freeze-dried durian is the version of the king that fits in a backpack. It weighs almost nothing and keeps for months on a shelf instead of hours in a fridge.

Walk through any night market in Penang or Bangkok between June and August, and one stall pulls the longest line. You smell it before you see it, a sweet

You spot a D10 by its green cap, and you lose one to its habit of splitting before you are ready. A ripe fruit cracked open on the branch in my greenhouse

People ask me this at every tasting, expecting a one-word answer, and I have learned to smile before I ruin it for them. The honest reply to which country

The first D11 that dropped in my greenhouse fooled me. No stench rolled out to announce it, so I found the fruit sitting on the floor by sight rather than

Picking a durian is the part beginners skip and then regret. The husk gives away almost nothing to an untrained eye, so people grab the biggest fruit

Chanee announces itself before you see it. Open one in a closed greenhouse and the garlic-and-onion note hangs in the air for an hour, which is exactly

Durian splits a room faster than anything else I grow. I have watched a first-time visitor gag at the smell from across the yard, then watched the friend