How do you open a durian?

Very slowly and very carefully.

For some strange reason, hubby really wanted to buy a fresh durian on this last visit to Vancouver. Luckily, my dad is pretty good at opening durians, so hubby didn't have to poke his fingers trying.

If you've never seen a durian before, you should look up the episode of Bizarre Foods where Andrew Zimmern visits Thailand and eats spits out a piece of durian.

I took a video of my dad at work opening one of these monstrosities. I actually took several videos since it took a long time to get it opened...you have to work at it slowly with both a large and small knife.

Here's what it looks like on the inside:

Durian - looks like brains, smells like dirty armpits, and tastes like rotting onions. Yum! Now you know why hubby wanted to get one.

Have you ever tried durian? Do you like it? What's the nastiest or strangest thing you've ever tried?

Confession: I actually like durian; it's got a custardy texture and a bottom note of vanilla that appeals to a lot of people. And the nastiest thing I ever ate was cow brains. *shudder*

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams