#durio

Lahung

(durio dulcis)

Also known as tutong or merangang

Found in Southeast Asia, specifically Malaysia and Indonesia, lahung is said to be the sweetest variety of durian, hence being named 'dulcis' which translates to 'sweet (of taste)' from Latin. It closely resembles dugyan (durio graveolens) but differs in colour of the fruits. The fruits of durio dulcis also don't open on or when they drop from the tree, whereas fruits of durio graveolens sometimes already open while still on the tree.

Though lahung has an offensive turpentine-like aroma, the dark yellow flesh has been described as tasting like caramel, pineapple cream or powdered sugar whipped into yogurt with a minty aftertaste. Durio dulcis is currently marked as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

Tupaloh

(durio arctifolius)

Not to be confused with monkey durian (durio excelsus)

Its botanical name roughly translating to 'pointy leaf durian', this durian species bears tiny fruits with a brightly coloured exterior and black seeds encased in glossy red flesh. While they definitely look fun and like a durian species you might snack on, there's only a small amount of flesh on the seed which is actually rather bland.

Dugyan

(durio graveolens)

Also known as red fleshed durian, orange fleshed durian or yellow fleshed durian

A very pretty variety of durian with a particularly mild odor, sometimes even described as odorless, which is oddly contradictory given that graveolens translates to ''strong smelling.'' Its origin is still a bit of a mystery as there are other durian sold under the names 'red flesh' or 'red prawn' though those belong to the durio zibethinus species, which is the most common durian variety most people are familiar with. Dugyan tends to come in three colours, in terms of flesh, hence the common names, but it's still unclear whether these are differing species. There has been a lot of back-and-forth over the years, grouping the species together with others, reducing it to a synonym for existing species and then separating it again as a species of its own. You'd think with all that effort going into its classification, this fruit has to be something really special, but taste-wise it has been described as bland, even flavorless and compared to eating an avocado.

Durian

Not to be confused with cempedak (chempedak), breadfruit or jackfruit

Carved up the durian! It’s been like two decades since I’ve had it in a form that’s not a shake or ice cream. It ended up being very expensive too. @_@ But I really wanted some Filipino food for myself.

The notorious sulfurous scent aside, I would describe it like eating banana-vanilla pudding with a little bit of caramel mixed in! I honestly get annoyed at all the articles by white people making a huge deal out of it (instead of saying the smell is hard for them and moving on) and they feel orientalizing and borderline racist. Because I grew up with it, the smell is actually comforting to me! My apartment now smells like an Asian supermarket’s produce section.

The rind wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be! Mostly it was just a pain to deal with the spines while trying to find all the locules.