Durian

Durian

What it is

The smell is sulphur chemistry: the genome published in 2017 showed the ripening fruit switching on a whole family of sulphur-handling genes, the same class of compounds behind onion and cooked cabbage. It has been barred from the Singapore metro since the network's early years, and hotels across the region still bill for the cleaning.

In the kitchen

Buy it frozen and open it while it is still hard — thaw it whole and you get a room that smells for two days and flesh that has gone to paste. Two tablespoons is a seasoning, not a portion: fold it into coconut cream or sticky rice, where the fat carries the sulphur and turns it savoury.

Goes with

Glutinous rice Coconut milk Palm sugar Pandan leaf Salt Dark chocolate

In season alongside

Ajvar Borlotti bean Brill Brocciu Arctic char Cipollini onion

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