From The Base To The Apex
Five Very Faint Lines May Be Traced, Over Which The Spines Arch A
Little; These Are The Sutures Of The Carpels, And Show Where The
Fruit May Be Divided With A Heavy Knife And A Strong Hand.
The
five cells are satiny white within, and are each filled with an
oval mass of cream-coloured pulp, imbedded in which are two or
three seeds about the size of chestnuts.
This pulp is the eatable
part, and its consistency and flavour are indescribable. A rich
butter-like custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best
general idea of it, but intermingled with it come wafts of
flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, brown
sherry, and other incongruities. Then there is a rich glutinous
smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which
adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid, nor sweet, nor juicy;
yet one feels the want of more of these qualities, for it is
perfect as it is. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and
the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In
fact to eat Durians is a new sensation, worth a voyage to the
East to experience.
When the fruit is ripe it falls of itself, and the only way to
eat Durians in perfection is to get them as they fall; and the
smell is then less overpowering. When unripe, it makes a very
good vegetable if cooked, and it is also eaten by the Dyaks raw.
In a good fruit season large quantities are preserved salted, in
jars and bamboos, and kept the year round, when it acquires a
most disgusting odour to Europeans, but the Dyaks appreciate
it highly as a relish with their rice.
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