North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jwlehman@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/12/2007 1:24:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, dtv@mwt.net writes:

> 12/04/2007 - A scientist in Thailand has reported success in a  
> decades-long quest to produce an odourless variety of the infamous  
> durian fruit - but aficionados claim this amounts to removal of  
> fruit's most appealing quality.
>
>
> The green, spiky durian fruit, native to South East Asia, is widely  
> thought to be the smelliest in the world. 


Don't know how many of our readers have been to Thailand or smelled durian elsewhere, but to my smeller it smells like limburger cheese, mildly. It for sure isn't an appealing aroma. Barbara didn't taste it, I did and liked it and had seconds. Maybe the purists wish to have the objectionable odor, but as someone who wasn't born there I'd think the odorless new variety would be a vast improvement. 

My congratulations to Dr. Songpol Somsri, senior agricultural scientist at the Horticulture Research Institute of Thailand's Department of Agriculture, for his breeding success. Maybe we will see this fruit in American markets in the future.

Jerry


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