From Grits to Chopsticks

A few weeks ago, local friends gave us some durian:

A durian could easily be used as a battle weapon – large, heavy and covered with very sharp spines.  Our friend told us there’s a saying that if your husband comes home late from work, he should kneel on one as punishment:Actually, the danger is not confined to the outside:

Wikipedia has this to say: “Some people regard the durian as having a pleasantly sweet fragrance; others find the aroma overpowering with an unpleasant odour. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine, and raw sewage.”We have been told that, if you eat enough of it, you will learn to love it:Some hotels in Asia prohibit bringing durian into the room:But Susan is resourceful; instead of letting it go to waste, she baked a loaf of durian bread (kind of like an “interesting” version of banana bread):

Actually, the bread isn’t too strange (if you ignore the aftertaste).  But we still have quite a ways to go before labeling ourselves as durian lovers…