On a recent trip to Thailand, I stayed in a hotel where eating a particular fruit could land you a massive fine. It turns out that the rule isn’t uncommon in the tropical country – so you risk paying over £100 if you break it.
I was in Bangkok, Thailand, staying at the INNside by Melia hotel in one of their King City View rooms when I spotted a tiny white sign which stood on the counter next to the tissues and some artistic sculptures. At first, I thought it was the usual warning not to smoke in the rooms – something most Brits will be used to considering there are no smoking hotel rooms here.
However, then I spotted that it wasn’t just the use of e-cigarettes or vapes that could incur a fine (and worse if caught as vapes are illegal in Thailand). You could also be charged a whopping 5,000baht (£113) for eating one type of tropical fruit.
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The sign read: "All our guest rooms are smoke and durian free zone. Smoking, including those funky e-cigarettes, and smuggling durian into the hotel is not permitted. Failure to adhere results in THB 5,000 fine per time. Thank you for respecting our policy."
But, what is durian fruit and why would I be charged above the rate of the room just for snacking on some while inside? Well it all makes sense when you hear some of the nicknames this fruit is called.
Durian – a massive green fruit with a creamy yellow flesh – is known as the King of fruits, vomit fruit and even corpse fruit. This is because of the apparently delicious fruit's noxious scent.
Describing the pungent smell of the spiky fruit, Food writer Richard Sterling said it smelled like "turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock". Others have said it stinks of rotting flesh, old running shoes or sick – and it can be smelled from metres away.
The scent of the fruit is apparently so strong that it lingers in rooms after it has been eaten so it makes sense that it would be banned in my hotel room. In fact, durian’s stinky smell is so offensive that it’s also banned in the Singapore subway system, in airports around Japan and Hong Kong and on flights throughout Asia.
The thought of such a smelly fruit might be off-putting for us Brits, but durian is still widely eaten and enjoyed across Asia and is known for being a tasty delicacy. The flavour has been described as sweet and musky while other say it has a creamy, caramel flavour and some are less complimentary.
So, of course, while in Thailand I had to try some. Admittedly, my experience may be a little different to ripping some flesh straight from the smelly fruit as I was served the "King of fruits" at PRU Restaurant – a Michelin star eatery in Phuket.
The light yellow kernel of durian was presented to me in an upscale style as an appetiser. It was placed on top of caviar (which, incidentally, I dislike) and drizzled with a herbal oil.
To try and keep my first taste free of the other flavours on the dish I took a scoop of pure durian and placed it on my tongue. Now, I didn’t recoil, it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten by a long mile, but I can’t say I liked it even when served by one of the best restaurants in Thailand.
This wasn’t the case for all of my companions; many sang the durian’s praises and thought it was delicious. But, as I scooped piece after piece trying to figure out what on Earth the fruit tasted like, I did not enjoy it. I'd much rather have a piece of fresh Thai mango, water chestnuts or apples (all of which are incredible and blow British fruit out of the water).
In all, I thought that durian tasted like a gone off cappuccino. A creamy, lightly nutty, slightly sweet flavour but… not quite right. A cappuccino left out in the sun to sour.
Added to the caviar and herbal oil it was a complex dish of sweet, salty and bright flavours. It was also a dish I chose not to finish unlike PRU’s delicious duck dish which I devoured like it was my last meal. Certainly, I won’t be getting charged money for eating the stinky fruit in any hotel rooms – give me mango sticky rice any day instead.
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