I went to a fruit party this evening, the highlight of which involved digging into generous portions of the king of tropical fruit.
Thanks to three sagely friends seated at my table, I also discovered three very interesting things about durians:
1) If you rub your hands on the husk while washing your hands, then let the water run over the husk before running over your hands, it takes the smell off your hands. I didn’t believe it when they told me, so I tried it, and it worked!
2) If you pour some water into the husk and drink from it, it takes away the heatiness (and so prevents you from getting a sorethroat, fever and so on). I tried this, and sad to say my throat is nevertheless feeling a little funky now. Maybe I didn’t drink enough… Apparently adding salt to the water is even better.
3) Durians are good for you, and particularly good for pregnant women to eat. Now this bit surprised me most, seeing as I usually associate durians with inflamed esophageal passages. My friends said it contains a whole lot of potassium, protein and other nutrients and minerals. I checked on wiki and it looks like they were right! Fascinating. Problem is it gives you sore throats and makes you fat. (So I suppose you just have to drink lots and lots of water out of the husk, and go running afterwards =)
So for those of you who eat lots of durian (I can’t cos my husband isn’t all too fond of the fruit), make sure you don’t throw the husk away before drinking out of it and washing your hands under it!
