jackfruit versus durian

I think jackfruits and durians are in the same family. They kinda look alike. Jackfruits are big pine coney things with tons of pokeys... and durians are little pine coney looking things with tons of pokeys.

Some of my classmates said in Vietnam, people put fences around the fruit trees. I thought maybe perhaps they were claiming the wild tree but they said no... the fence is suppose to protect people from dying. Ugh! Dying? When these fruits are ripe, they fall off the tree. Getting hit on the head by a pokey thing can surely cause brain damage, if not instant death. Ouch - that's gotta hurt a little! So when harvesting, people wear hardhats just to be sure they are protected.

I ate a jackfruit and thought it was delicious. People either love it or hate it. There's no in between. It stinks and in order to tell it's ripe, it stinks real bad. Real bad - like rotting onions. But if you like mango, peaches and bananas - that's what it tastes like (to me) if you ate all three fruits at the same time. Real yum, I think. Kinda like eating a ripe peach - texture wise.

Durians on the other hand. Well, I went to the Asian market and bought one thinking it was a jackfruit since it was huge. I usually see little durians... never big ones. So I got it, brought it home and read the tag... claiming it was a durian. Never had it before but had heard you either love it or hate it. These too stink REAL bad, when ripe. So I cut it open and ate it. This is like creamy egg custard like texture which is good. But the taste... yuck! To me, it was like eating a nice sweet banana and garlic - at the same time. Maybe it wasn't quite ripe yet? It was stinking up the kitchen... In some places in Southern Asia, durian is prohibited in public places because of the stink - to some people love it and other's, it totally offends the olfactory sense.