No Reservations About Durian... Fishheads Another Thing Altogether

While promo for the upcoming "No Reservations" movie is in full swing, we're looking forward to the "real" thing:  the new season of Anthony Bourdain's cult hit show on the Travel Channel starts on Monday.

We caught up last night on a couple of shows we missed first time around: Indonesia and Russia.  There have been numerous posts and articles written about how Bourdain is the perfect host for these foodie travelogues - he's capable of making almost any destination and food seem appetizing. 

Even durian.

We've been hearing about the wonders of the custardy durian for awhile now, but due to its reputation as the foulest smelling fruit on Earth, we weren't going out of our way to try one (and we know of nowhere in Pittsburgh that offers them for sale.)

But now we're intrigued... Bourdain suggests it's similar to a ripe stinky cheese.  And we already know we can do that.

On the other hand, the show that followed NR last night was one we hadn't seen before - Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.  Last night's show was filmed in remote outposts in Alaska and featured dishes of whale fat, seal soup, some fishheads that get buried and left to rot for a few months and an ice cream-like concoction of berries and fat.  During the rotted fishhead portion of the show, Zimmern commented that those delicacies also were reminiscent of stinky cheese.

Now, we're firm believers in whatever gets you through the night and the cold nights of Alaska certainly require level of sustainability due to scarcity, a fatty diet and creative use of a limited palette of ingredients.  But while we're open to durian, the fishhead thing... not so much.

That said, it would be interesting to start a local club of folks willing to try their hand at cooking and serving some of the recipes from these shows.  If you're up to it, contact Rich by using the Email Aldo link at left.

And if we can find a durian, we'll host a tasting.

(As an aside, we noticed that durian is notably absent on the list of competitive eating contests done to date ;-)

P.S.  On the previews of the coming season of No Reservations, Bourdain has an entire show dedicated to Cleveland (airing 8/27).  Now, we know of Michael Symon's (who recently lost to Morimoto on Iron Chef) landmark restaurant, Lola.  And we've had one of our top five meals ever at the Cleveland Ritz Carlton (back when we had money, lol).  But a whole show of No Reservations in Cleveland? 

We need a response - a campaign to get Bourdain to Pittsburgh for Season Five.  Stay tuned...

Comments

[SEAsian]

First things first, I really enjoy this blog :) Now that's out of the way...

I never thought of it before but 'custardy' is a pretty good description of the texture of the durian.

There are different definitions of when it's at its peak 'ripeness'. If 'chosen' according to Malaysian/Singporean standards, it's quite sweet and has a bit of acidity, very very slight bite... a hint of being on the edge of fermenting... reminiscent of a very in-your-face-blueberry of an Ethiopian Harrar.

As you already know, the 'problem' with the fruit for, mostly, "born-and-bred North Americans and Europeans" is the 'aroma'. Pungent it may be, and certainly foul to some, but to millions of SE Asians, it's intoxicatingly glorious.

One of my EU friends tried a pre-peeled 'frozen' (and thawed @ home) version of the fruit from a chinese supermarket in Canada. He said it smelled the way a fridge would smell if you left chopped onions in it. Another EU friend tried it while touring SE Asia and commented that while the aroma was strong and pungent, it was not nearly as bad as 'warned'.

Neither friend would go out of their way to buy the fruit but would eat it again if it was in front of them. Both also found the durian's 'foul' reputation to be a sad exaggeration.

Have a look at this site (I am not in anyway affiliated with it): http://www.durianpalace.com/quotes.htm

If you do manage to get this "king of all fruits" (whole), my advice is to eat it outside ;)

Oh, and also, I disagree with the stinky cheese comparison. I may be biased ;) but there is no way a durian is even close to the wretchable nastiness of a Limburger cheese. To be fair, I'm not a stinky cheese fan and a mild Roquefort or Stilton is as 'stinky' as I'm prepared to enjoy :D

As for fish heads, more ways than one to try it ;) Nothing at all like the Alaskan version described here. In fact, I could really do with a lovely coconut-milk fish head curry today. The 'delicacy' of this dish is in the eyes :o

Hope this helps :)

[Silvia]

Hey Rich: Didn't realize you are a "No Reservations" fan. I love Anthony Bourdain. I find him very entertaining not only on his show, but also as an author.

I would be up for trying some of those recipes, too (and durian--it intrigues me. Just don't serve it at the brunch on Sunday, please.)

As far as the upcoming season, I believe if Bourdain could make my home state of NJ seem wonderfully appealing last season, Cleveland will be no problem for him. In his New Jersey episode, he and Mario Batali visited Gencarelli's Bakery in Bloomfield, NJ (my hometown). If you are ever in the vicinity of Newark, NJ or New York City, you're not very far from Gencarelli's. It's well worth the trip and you won't find better Italian pastries, except for Ferrara's in New York.

[Rich]

SEAsian,
Thanks for that input - durians seem a bit less fearsome. Don't know if we'll ever get an actual durian over here, but we do have an outdoor patio - forwarned is forearmed!

Re: fishheads... we didn't intend to denigrate all fishhead recipes. We're fond of several soups which make abundant use of heads. It was the burying and digging up of the fishheads in this particular recipe that got our tummies turning. God bless the Inuits for their ingenuity on surviving up there and creating a "cuisine" around an extremely limited number of ingredients... but still, it's rotted fishheads, you know?

Syl,
We need more local AB fans we can round up for weekly/monthly get-togethers and pot lucks based on the series.

[Mike Donnelly]

Hey Aldo crew - greetings from Cleveland! We're rocking up here, first AB shows up and makes a TV show and now I'm hearing we're getting an SCAA workshop. You're coming up aren't you?

[Rich]

Mike,
Yeah, we'll have a carful heading up for the two cupping sessions. Nice to have a day trip for a change. Couple of our folks did the training in DC, but having it so close is great as we can send a bunch.

Any clues as to where Bourdain went when he was up there?

[Melanie]

Is Felicia going to be there?