Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • This is durian.

  • The name comes from the Malaysian word for thorn, which, yeah, checks out.

  • The fruit is native to southeast Asia, and Thailand grows more than half a million metric

  • tons of these weird looking things every year.

  • And as you might know, it has an odor.

  • A strong one.

  • And we're going to tell you why.

  • Despite its smell, many people really love the stuff.

  • In southeast Asia, they call durian theKing of Fruits.”

  • Alfred Russel Wallace had this to say about durian:

  • “A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there

  • are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine,

  • and other incongruous dishes.

  • Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses,

  • but which adds to its delicacy.”

  • But...that smell.

  • It may be a beloved treat in southeast Asia, but the smell is strong, to say the least.so

  • It's so strong that some hotels, subways and movie theaters ban it.

  • And you thought cellphones were a problem.

  • So what does it actually smell like?

  • At VidCon, we got some our friends at PBS to give it a whiff.

  • I was guessing hot garbage and I'm met with hot garbage here.

  • I remember it smelling worse.

  • I've been in markets in Asian where they've it and this doesn't smell as bad as what

  • I thought it did.

  • It smells quite fine.

  • It smells like food garbage that's been sitting for a couple of days.

  • Yeah.

  • Ya know, I thought I'd hate it more, actually.

  • So why does it smell so... pungent?

  • Chemists have identified about 45 different molecules that make up durian's odor.

  • They cover an impressive variety of smells: honey, roasted onion, caramel, skunk and rotten

  • egg, to name a few.

  • Incredibly, a recent study narrowed those down to just two molecules the researchers

  • say can mimic the fruit's overall smell.

  • A whole bunch of the compounds on that list have sulfur atoms in them, some of which can

  • smell pretty bad.

  • You know that special stink of rotten eggs?

  • Yep.

  • That's Hydrogen Sulfide.

  • Humans are insanely good at smelling sulfur-containing molecules.

  • Your nose is one hundred million times more sensitive to ethanethiol than ethanol.

  • There's probably a good evolutionary reason for that.

  • Rotten food, dead animals, poisonous gases and even the sweat of some carnivorous predators

  • all have sulfur-containing compounds, so it makes sense natural selection has made us

  • especially sensitive to them.

  • Our noses are so good at sniffing out sulfur thanks to what happens between sulfur compounds

  • and copper ions in our smell receptors.

  • When scientists blocked copper from the noses of lab mice, they couldn't tell the difference

  • between the gross smelling (methylthio)methanethiol from the more pleasant smelling eugenol, which

  • shows up in cinnamon and basil.

  • So sulfur helps explain why durian smells so bad to some people.

  • But why do people put up with that smell?

  • Sometimes we can forgive a little stinkiness if the food tastes really, really good.

  • So how does it taste?

  • The fruity stuff reminds me a little bit of maybe kiwi fruit or something like that.

  • It's like a mushy pear or something like that.

  • If you took an apple and dipped in it in a landfill, and covered it in yogurt, that is

  • durian.

  • Frankly I don't hate it.

  • I'm going to have some more.

  • Can't stop, won't stop.

  • You know, it could be an acquired taste.

  • I hated coffee and chocolate coffee for a really long time.

  • I don't think it deserves a bad rap.

  • It's fine.

  • I mean it's fruit, why are we picking on fruit?

  • Alright, alright.

  • We hear you.

  • But to switch it up, we asked professional chef Parnass Savang, who cooks with durian

  • and was raised eating it, what he thought it tastes like.

  • It's hard to describe because it tastes custardy, it tastes sweet and it has a funkiness

  • like a fermentation funkiness that other fruits don't have and that one just sings to me

  • so much.

  • So durian is clearly an acquired taste.

  • But why could some people get over that funkiness while others couldn't?

  •  

  • Well, not everyone smells or tastes things the same way.

  • Our DNA has code for roughly 800 odor receptors, though scientists think only about 400 of

  • those actually function.

  • Genetic variations in these receptors can change the way they function and alter your

  • perception of an odor, so you might not smell durian the same way Joe did.

  •  

  • And then there are people who can't smell it at all.

  • Seriously.

  • Maybe that sounds great at first.

  • But most of what we call flavor isn't really taste, it's smell.

  • They might just be missing out on the true complexity of this exotic delicacy.

  • Plus the way we react to smells is determined in part by our experiences.

  • Odors can stir up memories and emotions in people.

  • So if you grew up eating durian, it might trigger fondness rather than revulsion.

  • Some cheeses stink to high heaven but people still love cheese.

  • Or maybe we here in America just aren't getting good durian.

  • There are echelons of durian.

  • There's some durians that are highly prized where the seeds are small, the meat are large.

  • And there's some that are good for transporting and those aren't always as good.

  • I think durian is getting a bad rap in the United States because we get crappy durian

  • from Thailand.

  • And that, my friends, is the science of a very odorous fruit.

  • Have you ever had durian?

  • What's your verdict on theking of fruits”?

  • Let us know in the comments.

  • I personally think it tastes like a mango and avocado had a baby, and only fed that

  • baby garlic.

  • I like it!

  • Hit thumbs up and subscribe before you head out to find one of these beauties for yourself.

  • Thanks for watching.

This is durian.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it