This Is the World's Smelliest Fruit - Home » News & Notes » This Is the World’s Smelliest Fruit This Is the World’s Smelliest Fruit The Durian may look like a cross between a pineapple and a cantaloupe, but beware — it’s unlike any fruit you’ve ever eaten. In fact, many foodies considered the fruit the worst tasting — and smelling — in the world. The smell of a Durian has been compared with sewage, vomit and skunk spray. It’s almost impossible to find in the United States, but in its native Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia it’s considered a delicacy. In many cities in southeast Asia, the Durian is made into ice cream, candy, pancakes, rice and even chips. Taste-Testing Durian, the World's Smelliest Fruit - Zagat Taste-Testing Durian, the World's Smelliest Fruit By Priya Krishna | May 19, 2016 Credit: Flickr/vacationblogr ‘Tis the season for durian, the large, notoriously pungent fruit native to Southeast Asia.

If you’ve never tried durian before, the experience is pretty unlike that of eating any other fruit – or food, for that matter. There’s a saying, “smells like hell, tastes like heaven,” referring to durian’s rotten, sulfuric odor, but rich, custardy flavor. There are a lot of ways to prepare durian – in a cocktail, mixed into ice cream, enveloped in a cream puff – each exhibiting varying degrees of the signature durian pungency. We spent an afternoon trying the best that New York has to offer by way of durian desserts, with mixed results. Watch our first reactions to two of the dishes in the video below and check out a few more durian dishes around NYC from our tour as well. The Dish: Durian Ice Cream Durian Power (1-5): 3 Chinatown Ice Cream Factory offers the kinds of flavors you won’t find at your standard ice cream parlor – ube, red bean, green tea oreo, and, of course, durian. The durian ice cream is surprisingly tame, taking on the sweeter, more custard-like elements of the fruit. The taste was not unlike that of a corn cookie, or a banana cream pie.

The Dish: Durian Pancake Durian Power (1-5): 6 This dish was advertised as a pancake, so we thought that it might be a regular ol’ flapjack with some durian bits placed artfully on top. What arrived was a set of tiny, neon-colored pillows. The durian had been folded into a cream, which was then enveloped by a bright green crêpe. I think I might have enjoyed this would it not have been the extra bits of durian placed inside the crêpe that amplified the smell and taste of the durian. I had tried (and enjoyed) durian by itself before, but the combination of the durian cream and the lone durian bits was a little too overwhelming. It tasted kind of like a mango that had gone very, very bad. The Dish: Stinkin' Freakin Good (a durian cocktail) Durian Power (1-5): 1 The Stinkin’ Freakin Good is a seasonal, off-menu cocktail that Jeepney mixologist Reyangelo Honrade originally developed for the New York City Wine and Food Festival, but has kept as a summer offering due to its popularity.

The cocktail combines a durian shrub (shrub = durian + vinegar, a smart way to tone down the sharp odor of the fruit) with banana, pineapple, rum, lime juice, and a healthy amount of absinthe. The durian flavor in this cocktail is extremely subdued – so subdued that you barely taste any durian, and mostly taste the absinthe. That said, the cocktail was extremely refreshing, and what hints of durian I did detect were pleasantly sweet and sour. The Dish: Durian Banana Ice Cream Durian Power (1-5): 4 Despite also having banana in the mix, this ice cream tasted more strongly of durian than the durian ice cream at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Still, I am convinced that the best home for durian is in ice cream. The dish captured the complexity of the fruit better than any other dessert I had tried that day, and the banana added a strong, sweet aftertaste that the durian couldn’t deliver on its own. This dish may not make it into my go-to order at Morgenstern’s, but it was velvety and nice to eat all the same.

The Dish: Durian Cream Puff Durian Power (1-5): 2 Like the durian pancake, this seasonal dish at Chomp Chomp features both durian/coconut cream and lone pieces of durian. I braced myself for the intensity of the aforementioned pancake and was…happily let down. Using a buttery pastry (vs. a crêpe) as a delivery mechanism for the durian made for a dish that was bold but still retained all the great qualities of a cream puff (though I do wish the cream puff had been slightly puffier). Upon reflection, I enjoyed this dish mostly because I love cream puffs and coconut cream. Why BuzzFeed’s “People Try Durian (The Smelliest Fruit in The World)” is Racist – Project Ava Skip to entry content If you’ve spent any time on social media, I can bet that you might have come across a BuzzFeed piece or two. Originator of the iconic listicle, with over 200 million audience members worldwide, BuzzFeed continues to dominate media in the millennial era.

I happen to know first-hand how pervasive this content is to my generation, as BuzzFeed was as much a staple of my undergrad experience as all-nighters, boxed wine, and Cup-o-Noodles. As I matured into my 20’s, I continued to find a variety of BuzzFeed content to be refreshingly progressive and aware. BuzzFeed evolved with me. Beyond Nyan Cat gifs and listicles of buns on dogs , BuzzFeed addressed privilege , BuzzFeed uncovered truths , and BuzzFeed developed journalistic integrity that even became recognized by mainstream media outlets. I loved this. As a young millennial trying to build my own legitimacy in the mainstream world, I felt like we were all BuzzFeed. My point is, BuzzFeed does a lot of things, clearly does them well, and I’m a fan. So when I realized why one of the most popular series produced by BuzzFeed was incredibly problematic, I felt compelled to raise awareness on a practice of xenophobia and racism. The series People Try ______ (For The First Time) consists of a variety of BuzzFeed staff members, mostly white Americans, who are given tastes of various cuisines and are solicited for responses. The reactions can range from astounded delight to disgust and ridicule.

In the years since its inception, these videos have racked up tens of millions of views. It has spurned numerous spin off series where people from other countries try American foods for the first time. The People Try Durian (The Smelliest Fruit in The World) (2015) video has over 2 million views since its release and an earlier video of the series, Americans Taste Exotic Asian Food (2014), has over 13 million views. These two videos can arguably be considered the most popular installments of this series. These videos’ employment of ridiculing and trivializing the cultural practices and experiences of many Asian Americans on a mainstream platform is greatly problematic. As a Vietnamese American who has endured many years of shame for my food, I continue to find it deeply offensive. Growing up, for many years, one of my family’s favorite shows was Fear Factor (2011). Our favorite component was the eating challenge, where contestants are required to consume ‘disgusting’ oddities such as donkey semen. My parents, being second-language English speakers, particularly enjoyed it because it was the sort of thing that transcended language barriers.

But I remember during one week’s episode, we were surprised to see that the disgusting food challenge was balut i.e. fertilized duck eggs. Balut is native to the Philippines and are a delicacy common to many Southeast Asian countries. It was unsettling for me to see it considered a ‘disgusting eating challenge’ because my family and I eat these regularly. I was probably 11 or 12 and for the first time, I saw myself enjoying these eggs from the eyes of mainstream America and realized that I would be considered disgusting by their standards. Without the tools of critical-engagement in my arsenal, what I took away from it was a negative stigma of the food my family and I enjoy. As an adult with a better understanding of western privilege, I look back and resent Fear Factor for their lack of accountability when they decided on this eating challenge. I think about the producers who are in charge of selecting the item to be consumed, their exposure to balut, and the thoughts that led them to display it as a food to be considered disgusting. This is a case example of western media privilege: a food that has never been shown and never been seen in the mainstream media now makes its debut as something to be mocked.

During one of my early college days, a roommate asked me if I could eat my dinners in the common room from now on because she could not stand the smell of my food. The feeling of shame was immediate and obvious. I couldn’t have understood at the time how this was a manifestation of xenophobia, racism, and white supremacy–first telling me that my practices are unacceptable and then shaming me into accommodating a white person who was offended. I obliged and ate dinner in the common room and all throughout, experiencing overwhelming identity conflicts as a result of my ostracization. I finally asked my parents to stop packing meals for me, a request that was heartbreaking for the both of us. Through this experience, I subconsciously found a haven amongst other Asian Americans on the overwhelmingly white campus. Even if our experiences weren’t homogenous, I felt comfort in knowing there was something we could collectively share. These various instances of microaggressions and shame in relation to food strongly impacted the way I perceived and carried myself in the world. The mention of food smells, especially distaste for it, continues to trigger me well into adulthood.

There are days now, during work, in which I am uncomfortable eating in front of my co-workers because I don’t want to answer questions about what I’m eating, becoming an office spectacle, or worse, a burden. Before I began to consume media critically (aka deconstructing subtle oppression), I used to watch BuzzFeed’s People Try ______ (For The First Time) feeling unsettled but without understanding fully why. It wasn’t until I watched the People Try Durian video that it I came to dissect what was so problematic about this series. The concept of people trying things is not offensive. The offensive part of this series is its exploitations of foreign cultures, particularly of Asian foods. Cultural Appropriation Alert! Having Anglo-Americans reacting this way to my culture’s food is something that I’ve unfortunately become accustomed to enduring. Hearing the reactions from the video “it smells like farts” or “it smells like wet garbage,” I’m triggered back to a time when I’d been ostracized for my food. I recognized early in life that there was an identity and preference I would have to portray in public that contradicted my life in private and I was careful to keep these spheres separate.

This resulted in a scenario where my POC friends were welcomed to my house but my white friends were often not. The thought of inviting a BuzzFeed staff member over to my home, for them to eat any food in my house and to have them react like the way the people acted in that video, I would not only kick you out of my house but friendship fucking over, and if I ever see you in the streets, you better run. In reality, the BuzzFeed staff members probably wouldn’t have reacted that way if a Southeast Asian person was present, but does this make it any less wrong? From a platform that brands itself as liberal, progressive, and inclusive, BuzzFeed produces these videos that broadcast the trauma of Asian Americans to millions. And it’s fucked up BuzzFeed, because no one from Southeast Asia asked you to try and criticize their food: you took it, stripped it of its context, turned it into a spectacle, and monetized it. This is textbook cultural appropriation . The fact that BuzzFeed doesn’t recognize this as such or seem to care is another reminder of how experiences like mine continue to be invisible. 2. Under- and Misrepresentation GALORE.

In all of the videos that I’ve watched, not once was there representation of the people from where these foods originate or have experiences with the food. By omitting those who can contextualize the food, BuzzFeed fails to fill in a crucial void that says, ‘hey, you know what, people actually eat and enjoy this AND they are not foreign savages with underdeveloped taste-buds.’ Where BuzzFeed fails, I was able to find a video from the Guardian that approached the same topic very well. In the video, you see the main person on screen as a Southeast Asian Australian woman who mentions the very same common opinions of durian as a strong-smelling fruit, but counters that with her own opinion, that she loves it. She attends a festival, celebrating durian, where people from all backgrounds (including Westerners) are shown taking part in a durian eating contest. She raises awareness and educate people on what this food is, even mentioning the smell, without dismissing the people who enjoy it. The Guardian wins in that it educates and celebrates where BuzzFeed trivializes. In Western media, Southeast Asian American voices and stories are rarely given a meaningful platform.

Therefore, any media representation of us, our culture, including the food we enjoy, becomes massively more important because Asian Americans are still fucking fighting in 2016 to just be represented with integrity . 3. Hey, Guess What? The Southeast Asian Experience is also American. In both the People Try Durian and Americans Taste Exotic Asian Food video, the people of color who appeared in the video are tokenized by the production. ‘We’re not racist because, look, a couple of Asians and one Black person,’ check, check, right? Wrong, because POC can also practice and perpetuate racism. Where media outlets consider diversity of backgrounds sufficient, they neglect to represent a diversity of experiences because eating durian is an American experience for many Americans of Southeast Asian households. In the two videos that I’ve cited, I’ve noticed that it’s the Asian Americans in the videos that have the most exacerbated and theatrical reactions, as if they needed to distance themselves. And I get where instilled patterns of internalized racism , while not diminishing how nuanced and complex as they are, lead to the desire to be affirmed as ‘American’ by exhibiting less ‘Asian’ behaviors come from.

But these foods that BuzzFeed have taken to exploit, were a staple at my home in the suburbs of Virginia, where I was born and raised. As a Vietnamese American, I unfortunately still face being seen as foreign and othered in mainstream society and it is disheartening to see those I might actually identify with, disowning my culture. I’m familiar with the tendency to overcompensate and prove my American-ness, but when will this stop being at the expense of my Vietnamese-ness? I’m sick of those being contradictory. In the final video that was presented, BuzzFeed ends up tokenizing the Asian Americans and other POC who exhibit their own racist reactions for the sake of supporting the “story” that this food is truly disgusting. This is tokenization because we see few POC on screen, there is almost exactly one representative of each ethnic background (except whites because there’s always more whites…) and since the one Black person, one East Asian American person, and one South Asian American person have voiced their opinion in support of the story, the audience can take that opinion to be representative enough of all POC America as a whole.

In a Culture Vulture article by Eddie Huang, famed restaurateur, on whose memoir the television sitcom Fresh Off the Boat is loosely based, he discusses an important food scene from his childhood: “Throughout the book tour, it was my favorite scene to read because it exemplified how foreign white culture was to me. I remember the first time I saw macaroni and cheese, as a guest in my friend Jeff’s home, thinking it was pig intestines cut into half-moons hanging out in an orange sauce. Jeff found it incredulous that I didn’t know what macaroni and cheese was, but it was formative; he got a taste of macaroni and cheese from my eyes, discovering how it felt to be gazed on and seen as exotic instead of being the one gazing.” The scene didn’t make it into the show and it’s a damn shame because Americans need to understand exactly that. But I get it; Anglo-American culture isn’t supposed to be the butt of a joke in mainstream media. That space is reserved for Indian taxi drivers with accents, Long Duk Dong’s, and ‘smelly’ food (sarcasm).

I could get into what food means to immigrant communities, but in short, food is synonymous with love, comfort, and home and I’m tired of apologizing for this integral aspect of my identity. Balut is my American experience. Pig intestine is my American experience. Durian is my American experience and my American experiences need to be represented in a video of my food. I did not ask you, BuzzFeed, to try my food or any other part of my culture for that matter, and then impose on me this feeling of shame. As a major mainstream media outlet, striving to raise awareness for acceptance and social progressiveness, I’m calling this racist shit out. Ava Love, Kimberly A special thank you to the best ladies in my life Thuy Tran and Linh Tran who helped immensely in the development of this piece, through feedback on too many re-writes to count. Edited: The video had two people of Asian-descent. We apologize for the erasure of marginalized Asian populations and are grateful that this was brought to our attention. Edited: The third argument in piece has been edited to further clarify the problematic structures of internalized racism and tokenization of POC.

Edited: We have edited instances where “Southeast Asian” or “Asian” was used interchangeably with “Southeast Asian American” or “Southeast Asian Australian” in order to cite the appropriate western experiences. It has come to our attention that Southeast Asians do not face the same discrimination in their home countries and we have corrected our language to clarify. Please note that comments on this post will be monitored. While valid criticisms and critical engagement is welcome, the author nor any other member of our team will educate on racism, xenophobia, or oppression. Share & Start a Dialogue: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World - surstromming, kiviak, stinky tofu, hakarl, hongeo... | Open Journey You are here18 Stinky Foods From Around the World 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World By Issa - Posted on 06 June 2010 When it comes to smelly food, there is no middle ground - you either love it or you hate it. Here is a list of some of the stinkiest foods from around the world.

Surströmming Indigenous to northern Sweden, surströmming is herring that is fermented in barrels for a couple of months, then put into tin cans for up to another year. The fermentation is so strong that the can actually bulges from pressure, and it has been banned by some airlines who say that it is an explosive safety hazard. Many people eat it outdoors because of the strong odors released when the can is opened, often compared to rotten eggs, vinegar, and rancid butter. This stinky food even has its own museum . Photo of surströmming © Lapplaender Here is a video of a guy trying surströmming: I've never had this one yet and can't wait to try it :) Kiviak This Greenland delicacy is made by wrapping whole small sea birds (auk), feathers and all, in sealskin and burying it for several months to ferment. When it is dug up, the insides are decayed to the point of near-liquification and are reportedly sucked out after creating an opening by breaking off the head or some other means. Enough said.

Kimchi Kimchi, also spelled kimchee, is the most well-known Korean dish and has become a household name around the world. A staple food in Korea, it is made from fermented vegetables and is often eaten at every meal – yes, even for breakfast. While I love it, a good example illustrating how it's strong smell can affect people is when my dormmate in college, an exchange student from Bangladesh, ran out of the kitchen when one of the Korean students made kimchi stew. Photo of kimchi © Nagyman Stinky Tofu A popular dish at night markets in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, stinky tofu's name speaks for itself. Fresh tofu is added to a brine made from fermented milk, meat, vegetables and sometimes seafood. The brine can be so rotten that it will be infested with maggots – even people who like it often admit it's smell resembles rotten trash or feces. Based on a report on takungpao.com.hk , some stinky tofu makers have been caught adding things like human excrement, rotten meat juice and chemical dies to the brine in order to give it the right taste in a shorter period of time.

While this practice is not widespread, it gives idea of how strong this stuff can smell! Photo of stinky tofu © Takoradee The taste and smell of stinky tofu varies greatly - after eating some from a street market in Taiwan, Andrew Zimmern can't even swallow this kind here: Vieux-Boulogne Cheese A delicacy from Northern France, Vieux-Boulogne, aka Sablé du Boulonnais, was found to be the smelliest cheese in the world by experts and machines at a university in London. One reason for the unusually strong smell of this raw milk cheese is that it is dipped in beer during production, which then reacts with the enzymes in the cheese as it continues to ferment. Natto Natto is a Japanese dish of slimy, fermented soybeans. It is often eaten for breakfast with or on top of rice, in sushi or added to a bowl of noodles. A little soy-based sauce and Chinese mustard is added before the beans are mixed up in a circular motion with chopsticks, which creates lots of bubbles and gooey strings of, well, slimy fermented beans.

Photo of natto © Shades0404 Natto is so slimy that after putting it in your mouth, you have to make several circles with your chopsticks to break the gooey strands hanging between your lips and the chopsticks. Here is an instructional video on how to eat natto: People often have very different reactions to natto and two people can describe the same batch as almost lacking in smell and flavor to being gaggingly putrid. Some people just can't get over the slimy texture. I love natto and sometimes add things like kimchi, raw egg or wasabi, though my roommates in Hawai'i would usually leave the kitchen when I made a natto omelette....yum! Hákarl Hákarl is fermented shark meat and is a Icelandic delicacy. It is so delicate, in fact, that many people in Iceland never get around the trying it. One reason may be because it tastes like ammonia and causes humans to gag when they put it in their mouth. Photo of hákarl © Chris 73 under the creative commons cc-by-sa 2.5 license Hákarl took on a new level of fame after appearing on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.

Similar to Korean skate fish (hongeo), sharks expel urine (pee) by changing it into urea and passing it through the skin. When a shark or skate fish dies, the urea in its body turns into ammonia and this is what give hákarl and hongeo their gaggingly unique tastes. What do the pros say? Andrew Zimmern said it tastes better than it smells, Anthony Bourdain said it was the worst thing he has ever had, and Gordon Ramsay couldn't even keep it down. Watch Andrew trying it here: Hongeo: Rotten Korean Skate Fish Hongeo hoe, or hongeo sashimi, is rotten raw skate fish where the uric acid (pee) stored in the fish's flesh turns to ammonia. Ammonia can set off a natural gag reflex when humans smell it and it is quite the same when you put fish seeping with it in your mouth. While hongeo fans rave about the unique flavor of this acquired taste, they usually try to mask and tone it's flavor down with generous amounts of kimchi, salted pork belly and makkeolli – a kind of Korean rice wine.

Photo of hongeo © egg (Hong, Yun Seon) Hongeo is hands-down one of the worst foods I have ever eaten. As soon as I stepped into the hongeo specialty restaurant, my nostrils were assaulted by a smell of rotting fish similar to what you may find in the dumpster behind an Asian seafood market. It was too late to back out, however, and fortunately for me I was already tipsy from the soju we had for dinner. When I got home I was relieved to be out of the restaurant but bummed that my apartment stank like rotten food. The problem was that no matter if I stuck my nose in the refrigerator or in the trash can under the sink, I couldn't find out where the smell was coming from. I finally realized that it was my clothes and it took three good washings to get the smell out. They should follow the lead from surströmming lovers and keep this stuff outdoors. This is one of those foods that you can't understand how it tastes unless you actually eat it.

Skip to 3:15 to watch Andrew trying to keep it down here: Narezushi Best known in the west as Funazushi eaten by Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods, narezushi is made from salted fish that is fermented with rice for up to 4 years. Narezushi is an ancient art that goes back over a thousand years. Fortunately, someone eventually realized that adding vinegar to rice created a more pleasant smell and mild taste than using fermented fish, and modern sushi was born. I heard all about this from Andrew and his crew when I showed them around Okinawa, and I can't wait to try it next time I go back to mainland Japan. Époisses de Bourgogne Cheese One of Napolean's favorite, Époisses de Bourgogne was called "the king of all cheeses" by famed gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. This cheese is so smelly that it has been banned on public transportation in France according to the BBC.

Photo of hongeo © Sominsky Durian Durian is the only food on this list that is not fermented and the fact that it is illegal to carry on public transportation in several countries in Southeast Asia says a lot about what to expect. Like many stinky foods, people often love it or hate it. Here is what the meat inside looks like: Photo of durian © Markalexander100 Here is a sign in Singapore telling people not to bring durian on public transportation: Photo of no durian sign © Steve Bennett Durian's texture is milky and custard-like and it's smell is distinctly recognizable. American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain says it leaves your breath smelling like you've been frenching your dead grandma, and he likes the stuff. Another famous food critic, Richard Sterling, described it as "pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock." How did Andrew Zimmern do with Durian? Found out here: Durian tasted okay when I had it plain and great in a yogurt smoothie, which probably means that I will end up loving it once I've had it a few more times.

Century Egg Known by many names, including hundred-year/thousand-year/millennium egg, a century egg is a preserved chicken, duck or quail egg. A paste made from tea water, clay, lime, ash and salt is packed around the eggs, then they are rolled in rice hulls to keep them from sticking together and left to sit for 3 years. The result is a greening-brownish egg that smells like flatulence and urine, which is hopefully the only reason why it is called “horse urine eggs” in some Southeast Asian countries. Photo of century egg © Svencb Lutefisk Lutefisk or 'lye fish' is a Nordic dish where they soak dried whitefish in lye to give it a gelatinous texture, then cook it after soaking it in water to remove the lye. Lutefisk is renowned for it's strong smell and the fact that it destroys sterling silver upon contact. It even has it's own genre of lutefisk humor . Photo of lutefisk © Jonathunder Enthusiasts should go straight for the stuff made from cod, while lutefisk made from pollock or haddock is much easier on the nose and palette.

Kusaya Kusaya is Japanese fish that has been soaked in salted brine (salty fish juice), then dried in the sun. The catch is that the same brine is used again and again and again and again, and the best kusaya comes from brine that has been in use for hundreds of years. It is important to note that this brine is not refrigerated and has basically been fermenting in a container for centuries! The name probably comes from the first word that comes to mind when you get anywhere near this stuff – kusaya means 'that stinks'. Here is a video of kusaya being made: Niijima Island is famous for having the best kusaya in Japan. Families often have their own pot of kusaya brine that has been in their family for generations and is something of an heirloom. It can be so old that the oldest people in the family often have no idea who made it! While many people say the taste is much more mild than its smell, kusaya often comes in pre-grilled packages because grilling it inside is not something most people want to do. How bad does it smell?

Check out this video of unsuspecting foreign women in Japan opening up a box: Shrimp Paste Shrimp paste is popular in dishes from southern China and Southeast Asia. It is made from mixing salt with fermented shrimp that have been dried and grounded. However, if the shrimp are small enough they don't have to be pounded as long as they decay enough to no longer resemble shrimp. Needless to say, shrimp paste stinks and is famous for clearing out kitchens when it is thrown in the pan. Photo of lutefisk © Tequila Anyone who has ever used small shrimp as groundbait on a blaring hot day will have some idea of what it smells like - just take that stench and multiply it by a hundred. Westerners fooled by its innocuous name have been known to try and return it to stores in Southeast Asia thinking they were sold something that went rotten, and technically I guess they're right. Here is a funny video of some guy who tries it plain...you may want to fast forward to 1:35: Limburger Cheese Limburger is probably the most famous of the smelly cheeses. One of the bacteria that creates human body odor is that same bacteria used to make Limburger.

When someone says it smells they toe jam, they are actually telling the truth. The process of making Limburger is complex, though, so don't get any ideas about rubbing other kinds of cheese on dirty feet to replicate this unique flavor. Fish Sauce With the explosion in popularity of Southeast Asian cuisine, fish sauce has found it's way into more and more kitchens. It is made by salting small fish such as anchovy, putting them in a jar with plenty of salt below and on top of the fish, and covering them with a straw mat with rocks on it to help squeeze the juice out of. The fish jars are then placed outside to ferment in its own juices for up to a year. Photo of fish sauce being made © poida.smith To get the full aromatic effect, fry some rice noodles in a pan with fish sauce, rice vinegar and sriracha hot sauce. Rakfisk Rakfisk is a Norwegian dish usually made from fresh trout or char that is salted, then fermented for two the three months in the juice that comes out of the fish. The rotten fish is then eaten raw and washed down with beer and potato liquor to help kill the deadly bacteria - and probably your taste buds.

Photo of rakfisk © Wikipedia 500 tonnes of rakfisk is eaten in Norway every year, though many Norwegians reportedly don't like the stuff and a fair amount of it is consumed by tourists looking for an authentic meal. Login to post comments Submitted by Yaniv (not verified) on Tue, 10/26/2010 - 08:54. Quality Natto and Kimchi taste pretty good....... but with stinky tofu I just dont have the hyperbole to describe how revoltingly impossible it smells, everytime i walk past stinky tofu at an outdoor market I speed up because I just want to puke, it smells like a large trash bin with a lot of off food and sewerage in it. Login to post comments Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/08/2011 - 15:16. The only thing I'm most afraid of is surströmming. Everything else doesn't seem that bad... Login to post comments Submitted by Korean Guy (not verified) on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 05:08.

FOA, I've been pure Korean for 25 years. Dead body soup : It's kinda smelly but it's definitely nuturious and it tastes good. Some Koreans can't eat but most of people enjoy it. I give it half of star. Hongeo : It's the king of the stinky food in Korea. When you eat it with kimchi, garlic and pork belly, you can only 'sense' the ammonia. But if you eat it alone, It's kinda acid showering in your tongue and it really stinks your nose too. You will act exactly the youtube man did, flopping your arms, grabbing your nose, some kind of stuff. I give it a one star when it's combined with others, and three stars for only. Hongeo tang : it's Hongeo soup. I even got a chill even I just imagine about this thing. It's ammonia soup with chump of ammonia. Taste it if you dare. It's the god of the stinky Korean food. Give it five stars.

Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Heidi (not verified) on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 18:35. I'm Taiwanese and I can tell you that when I was a kid, none of the children would go near stinky tofu. One time we had some at a restaurant and my cousins and I asked if we could eat outside. But now, eighteen years later, I love it! It tastes so great fried, with a bit of soy sauce and garlic. Mmmmm. :) Thousand-year-old egg is so delicious as well, the brown part doesn't smell at all, it's the yolk that can get a little iffy. The taste of the yolk is hard to describe, but it's not bad either. I love it with porridge just like 10/10/2010! My boyfriend is Korean and he has kimchi at basically every meal. I've always loved it and have never found it to smell like anything but spicy chilies. I asked him about hongeo and he had never heard of it, though.

The one food on the list that freaks me out the most is kiviak. I love eating fish brains and cow stomach and pig intestines and I've even tried cow tongue and heart, but never raw or fermented! I guess those Inuits have some strong stomachs. The fact that lutefisk destroys sterling silver is pretty freaky too. O_O @Matt, there's a reason a lot of these foods are considered delicacies. Yogurt is fermented, too, but few people question that. Clearly the bacteria that result from fermenting these foods has proven to not be harmful to humans, and that's how they've made it onto dining table after dining table! Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Eye (not verified) on Mon, 11/07/2011 - 08:42. Natto can be difficult for some people, but it was my favorite breakfast for the year I worked in Japan. Not only is it incredibly easy and quite fun to prepare, the taste is very mild, particularly in the morning before I brushed my teeth. I don't like sweet tastes in the morning, so its flavor was perfect.

Not only that, but it is a superfood. Fermented soy like Natto and Miso contain omega3 fatty acids like fish and are great for your health. Probably why Japanese people enjoy the longest average lifespan (or did, this new generation is pretty hooked on junky 'western style' foods). Login to post comments Submitted by michael (not verified) on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 07:27. Fermented is it! With a lot of second borne vitamin and enzymes... I recommend europeans to eat it every meal with salad or spagehtti. I like that odor unworldly. hahaha Submitted by michael (not verified) on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 07:36. Besides Fish sauce, Kimchi is Super number one!! Garlic Smelly but taste wonderful. Very addictive diet!! Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Charlie Sommers (not verified) on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 07:56. I have eaten 7 out of 18 and enjoyed than all.

Durian is the prince of the fruit kingdom and its flavor and sweetness are unequaled. I was in Iceland many years ago but had an immature palate at the time, I was only 19, and passed on the shark meat. I would love to give it a try now. Natto and kimchi together with a bowl of miso soup and some rice make a marvelously tasty and very healthful breakfast. I even make my own natto. Fish sauce is an ancient condiment and was even made by the Romans a few thousand years ago where it was called Garum. I use Thai, Vietnamese, or Filipino fish sauce often instead of soy sauce. It adds lots of flavor. My goal for this year is to finally try Surströmming, I had balked at the high price in the past but I don't want to go into the afterlife as an incomplete man. Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Brigid Weiler (not verified) on Wed, 02/15/2012 - 15:07.

You should have included oolichan oil, derived from a small fish also known as candlefish; Aboriginal peoples on canada's west coast take these very oily fish (so oily that a dried one can be lit and used as a candle hence the English name) they are rotted in vats and rendered down for their oil. Oolichan oil is hard to get if you not Native but I have been lucky enough to aquire some; i love it even though it tastes just like rotten fish, some Native people can't even stand it. Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 20:24. you know what, please do not write about it when you don't know specifically. hongeo is not put in uric acid,but just placed at room temperature Login to post comments Ten metre cheese Submitted by znaniak (not verified) on Wed, 12/26/2012 - 10:20.

Rating cheeses by the distance from which you can smell them in open air Olomoucké syrečky is definitely "over ten metre cheese". Please add to your rating, if possible. For a comparison Harzer roller has (to my estimate) max. 5 metre rating. BTW 1 metre = 3.28084 feet. Login to post comments Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 01/07/2013 - 20:18. Oh actually, nevermind. I read that wrong. Sorry.... Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Lai-Lai (not verified) on Sun, 01/27/2013 - 06:23. I HATE fermented foods & drinks, the only exceptions being strained sweetened yoghurt, 3 types of of hard cheeses, & vinegars. Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by White girl (not verified) on Mon, 03/11/2013 - 16:02.

I was brought up eating a traditional English diet.....meat, potatoes and vegetables. As an adult, I dislike 'English' foods. I love Kimchi, shrimp paste with plain rice, and fish sauce on anything, but I don't think I'd enjoy any of the other foods on this list. Actually, Kimchi is delicious, really good for you, and I just made my first batch this week! Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Bugbugbug (not verified) on Wed, 04/17/2013 - 13:50. I really like kimchi now, but my first exposure to it was somewhat frightening. When I was an undergrad, there were two Korean students on my floor who used to make kimchi in the dorm kitchen, It invariably cleared the room when anyone opened the crock. I've eaten both haggis and durian and wasn't crazy about either. No great desire to try most of the other foods on this list, even though I consider myself moderately adventurous about food.

Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/06/2013 - 03:54. My neighboring house once tried to broil Kusaya on the street in Tokyo.It was smelled too bad and someone called the police to check it.However,the policeman told them that it was OK to cook Kusaya and necessary to pay attention to confirm the extinction of fire. They served out after finishing to cook. To finish it needs extra scorching with sugar, soybean sauce and sesame.It took two hours. I ate a considerable amount of Kusaya and tasted very good like scorched bacon.Recently the price goes up to twenty dollar around. It was sad for US ladies not to eat cooked one. Login to post comments Re: 18 Stinky Foods From Around the World Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 08/23/2013 - 18:08. I absolutely adore durian. The hybrids these days have no smell or hardly any, and is sold in supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths in Cairns, Australia.

Does not taste the same. I say, the stinkier tones have better taste. The texture is creamy and absolutely wonderful in ice cream. Login to post comments A-Z list of fruits | Recipes from Nic and Chris A-Z list of fruits Here is an alphabetical list of fruits and some related facts about each one. Apple – a global favourite fruit and a good source of vitamin C Apricot – soft, sweet and juicy orange coloured fruit packed with beta-carotene. Avocado – Fatty soft flesh and a large stone in a thin outer casing. These trees produce hundreds of fruits which taste buttery and rich. Breadfruit – a single Malayan tree produces up to 200 or more grapefruit sized fruits each season. Breadfruit flesh can be roasted, baked or fried and the taste is like bread (hence the name). Banana – yellow curved tropical fruit beloved the world over. In terms of global sales this tops the list of fruits. Originally from tropical Southeast Asia bananas grow pointing upward on the worlds largest herbaceous flowering plant. Most people mistake the plant for a tree, but once the fruits are ripe the main stem (which may have grown to 25ft tall) dies off and a new one starts growing.

Although the common yellow banana is a sweet tasting fruit the starchier common plantain is also popular, but often makes an appearance in savory dishes, particularly in the West Indies. Blackberry – The fruit of the bramble bush which is a very common european wild bush, blackberries are also cultivated and blackberry jam is a british favourite. Picking blackberries is enjoyable, but the bush has sharp spines. Blackberries find their way into wines and liqueurs, but apart from jam, their most common use is in blackberry and apple pies. Blackcurrant – A european native currant also popular for jams. Blueberry – A north American fruit high in antioxidants. The small bushes grow in acidic soils, producing hundreds of small blue fruits in early summer. Cherimoya – or custard apple. A delicious south american fruit with a white flesh which does indeed taste of apples and custard. The seeds and skin are toxic, but the flesh is utterly delicious. Cherry – Related to both plums and apricots, the cherry tree produces small red fruits with a distinctive taste. Sweet and fragrant, cherries are a midsummer treat. Clementine – A sweet orange citrus fruit from the mandarin family.

Clementines are much easier to peel than oranges. Coconut – Should this even be in a list of fruits? The fruit of the coconut palm is harvested throughout the tropical world for food, oil and Coir (the brown fibrous husk of the coconut). Cranberry – American bog berry, high in vitamin C. An astringent taste makes it a great breakfast fruit. Custard Apple – see Cherimoya Durian – A thorn-covered outer layer reveals a strong smelling fruit that is most definitely an acquired taste. Fig – The fruit we know of as the fig is actually the flower of the fig tree. Sweet and delicious Grapefruit – A breakfast favourite, The large sharp but succulent grapefruit has a yellow skin and is about three times the size of an average orange. Much more sour than an orange and with a bitter tang too, the grapefruit needs to be fully ripe or alternatively a little sugar can be added. Grape – Clusters of green, yellow or red fruits grow on vines in many parts of the world. Eaten fresh or turned into wine, grapes are a very popular fruit. Guava – Round or oval fruits between 4 and 12 cm long.

The taste is slightly perfumed and sweet and Guavas are packed with vitamins A and C. Jackfruit – Related to Guava but much bigger fruits that can grow to 80 lbs in weight. the taste is unique and many westerners find they cannot enjoy them, but in Asia jackfruits are hugely popular. Kiwi – Green to brown skinned fruit with a hairy surface. Inside is a sharp but sweet flesh that goes equally well in a traditional sweet fruit salad as it does in a tomato salad. Try slicing kiwi and tomato and layering them alternately in a dish. A sprinkle of salt is all you need to complete this surprisingly good salad. Lemon – The king of citrus fruits and essential in Mediterranean cookery. Southern Italy is particularly famous for cooking with lemons. Lime – Green relative of the lemon. Vitamin C rich limes were given to british sailors to ward off scurvy, which kept them healthy but led to the nickname ‘Limey’ being used as an insulting term for a british person. Loganberry – A cross between raspberries and blackberries and like both parents is high vitamin C.

Mandarin – Relative of the satsuma Mango – Tropical fruit Mangosteen – Melon – In Italy the melon sellers walk the beaches selling slices of cool watermelon to sunbathers. The massive heavy round green fruits are cut open to reveal a deep red watery sweet flesh that seems to dissolve in the mouth. One of the worlds great summer pleasures is spitting the inedible watermelon seeds out as far as possible. Nectarine – A hairless form of peach that grows in slightly more northern latitudes than its more tender cousin. Delicious to eat freshly picked from the tree. Nectarines have a sweet orange coloured flesh full of juice. Orange – Popular citrus with many varieties. The navel orange is so called because the depression at the end looks like a bellybutton. Papaya – Large central american fruits generally eaten raw. Peach – The fine experience of picking and eating a fully ripe peach from a tree and eating it there and then has little competition for unalloyed pleasure. A thin downy skin parts to reveal rich succulent flesh that is sweet and delicious. Pear – A northern european native, the pear is a wonderful fruit although not as popular as apples these days, largely due to shorter shelf life.

Persimmon – see Sharon Fruit Pineapple – Very popular in the 17th Century when first imported into europe. Sir Christopher Wren wanted to replace the ancient Gargoyles on the roof of St Georges Chapel in Windsor with a row of stone pineapples, but thankfully, wiser heads prevailed. Plum – Plums are small stone fruits that taste wonderfully sweet when very ripe, but quite tart while ripening. The can be found in many colours including yellow, white, green or red, but most commonly they are a deep purple shade (often with a white waxy bloom on the outside). Pomegranate – These fruits have been popular in tropical regions for thousands of years. The juice is now sold as having health giving high antioxidant levels. Quince – The quince is related to apples and oranges, but unlike its relatives quinces are too hard to eat raw and taste pretty poor too. They need to be ‘bletted’ (softened by frost and then a little decay) before being eaten. They are generally used to make jams and jellies which have a certain ‘christmassy’ scent that sets them apart from other fruits.

Satsuma – A citrus fruit smaller than an orange, which is both seedless and easy to peel. Sharon Fruit (Persimmon) – Strawberry – So easy to grow and so delicious to eat. For the british, strawberries and cream are the ultimate taste of summer. At the Wimbledon tennis championships 28,000 kilogrammes of strawberries are eaten by spectators. The only problems with strawberries is that the sweetest varieties only last a short time once harvested, so supermarkets often have varieties which may look nice, but taste of practically nothing. Tamarillo – Ugli Fruit – It is very ugly. A huge great lump of a citrus fruit that is apparently a hybrid cross of grapefruit, orange and tangerine. Jamaican tangelo is the kinder, but less memorable name. Watermelon – A large melon with sweet and extremely watery flesh. Very refreshing and sold on beaches to sunbathers throughout europe. These exotic fruits look wonderfully strange, and they taste of adventure. Akebi 1 of 15 This brilliantly purple fruit thrives in northern Japan, in the Tohoku area, but only briefly, making an appearance for about two weeks in early autumn.

It grows on a wild vine and, for many Japanese people, is a symbol of the changing seasons. When the fruit is ripe and ready to eat, it pops open on one end. The gooey pulp inside is slightly sweet, while the rind is slightly bitter and is usually used as a vegetable. Do as locals do, and slurp up the flesh along with the seeds. 1 of 15 By Allison Kade “I ate a whole lemon, raw, and it was delicious,” says Katie O’Neill, a Philadelphia-based medical student. No, she wasn’t on drugs, but her perception was chemically altered: after eating miracle fruit, nearly everything tastes (temporarily) sweet. The experience is so psychedelic that many have dubbed it “flavor tripping.” Miracle berries, native to West Africa, are a trendy example of the weird world of exotic fruits. A sure sign that you’ve landed somewhere new, such fruits intrigue and challenge us, whether by their unfamiliar size, shape, texture, or smell. The stinky durian fruit, for instance, has become infamous among travelers to China and Southeast Asia. “I was thrown off a bus once because I had one in my bag,” says travel writer Mikaya Heart.

But she’s quick to add that durian is one of her favorite tastes: “It is very succulent and oily, the consistency and color of really thick custard. I would eat it every day if I could.” With a little effort, you can find durian and other exotic fruits without flying halfway across the world; start your search at specialty grocery stores or ethnic restaurants. Such crazy, beautiful, and above all, natural fruits are a vivid reminder of the planet’s incredible, if precarious, biodiversity. As many farmers mass cultivate the same breeds of common fruit over and over again, other versions may die out to make room for bestsellers like Golden Delicious. At the same time, fruits once considered exotic (like mango or, recently, acai) can find their way into the American mainstream, which makes encountering an unfamiliar fruit that much more of a tantalizing novelty. Case in point: David Slenk lived with a Peruvian family in Lima during a yearlong trip through South America. At dessert time, they served him a weird fruit: “bright white and kind of mushy, chopped up and covered in orange juice,” he recalls. “I’d never seen anything like it before.

I took a cautious bite, couldn’t believe my taste buds, then finished the entire bowl in seconds.” That’s how Slenk discovered that he loves cherimoya, a green fruit with a fleshy white inside and black seeds. “It’s almost enough to make me move to Peru forever.” Keep reading for more exotic fruits bound to stimulate your senses. Sponsored Content

Question: What fruit, native to southeast Asia, is considered to be the world's smelliest?
Answer: Durian