Ban Doi Sa-Ngo is a rural area in the hilly heartland of the Golden Triangle in Thailand. Our drive through the area in the basic truck conveyances equipped with "Iron Buffalo Engines" brought us along fields in the small valleys where rice and other crops are planted and we noted some ongoing rice harvesting. The fields are surrounded by plenty of hills where the many different hill tribes have their villages.

Two of the fruits we noticed while visiting some of the villages in this area are the papaya and the durian and I include a couple of images of these in today's set. While most people are likely familiar with papayas, this is probably not the case for the durian and I will add a short explanatory note below for this very unusual fruit. When I experienced this fruit for the first time in the late 1960's in Singapore, it was described to me to be a buttery fruit with the "taste of heaven and the smell of hell". I remember making a detour by crossing to the other side of a street when encountering durian at a market stall. Below is a more scientific description of this regional delicacy, substantially condensed from an article in Wikipedia.

The DURIAN is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio. Durians are commonly associated with Southeast Asian cuisine. Named in some regions as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, strong odor, and thorn-covered rind. The fruit can grow as large as 30 cm (12 in) long and 15 cm (6 in) in diameter, and it typically weighs 1 to 3 kilograms (2 to 7 pounds). Its shape ranges from oblong to round and the color of its husk green to brown.

An acquired taste, some people regard the durian as having a pleasantly sweet fragrance, whereas others find the aroma overpowering and unpleasant. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine, and raw sewage. The persistence of its odor, which may linger for several days, led certain hotels and public transportation services in Southeast Asia to ban the fruit. I remember one incidence in recent history where a hotel floor had to be evacuated in Europe because of the fear of a gas leak, only to find that some Asian airline people had brought a durian fruit into their hotel room. The flesh can be consumed at various stages of ripeness, and it is used to flavor a wide variety of savory and sweet desserts in Southeast Asian cuisines.

The origin of the durian is thought to be in the region of Borneo and Sumatra, with wild trees in the Malay peninsula, and orchards commonly cultivated in a wide region from India to New Guinea. In Southeast Asia, the durian has been cultivated for centuries at the village level, probably since the late 18th century, and commercially since the mid-20th century. The durian is cultivated in tropical regions, and stops growing when mean daily temperatures drop below 22 °C (72 °F). Durian trees are large, growing to 25–50 m (80–165 feet) in height depending on the species. Durian trees have one or two flowering and fruiting periods per year.

Although the durian is not native to Thailand, Thailand is ranked the world's number one exporter of durian, producing around 700,000 tons of durian per year, 400,000 tons of which are exported to mainland China and Hong Kong. Malaysia and Indonesia follow, both producing about 265,000 tons each. Chantaburi in Thailand holds the World Durian Festival in early May each year. This single province is responsible for half of the durian production of Thailand.


Notes
TRIP INFO: Set # 1 provides a brief introduction to THIS SERIES on SOUTH & EAST ASIA. See it at
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-724330-1.html

THAILAND COUNTRY INFO in set # 143: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-755664-1.html

GOLDEN TRIANGLE INFO in set # 173: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-758433-1.html

EARLIER POSTS of this series: Access my topic list at UHH, the new posts are listed in reverse chronological order:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/user-topic-list?usernum=45105

Thanks for visiting, for improved clarity please view the downloads. I look forward to your comments and questions.

.

Thank you Kip, and I do very much share your enthusiasm for Tilsit cheese. It was actually one of only about 3 cheeses commonly available in the less sophisticated areas of Switzerland, when I grew up in the Forties and Fifties. You know of course that Tilsit is actually a "Swiss" cheese, first produced by emigrants to Prussia from the Emmental valley of Switzerland (where the "big-hole" Emmentaler cheese comes from). These emigrants tried to copy their native Emmentaler cheese but because of different molds, yeasts and bacteria in the humid climate didn't succeed, but created a different cheese which they named "Tilsit" after the Prussian town where they have settled. The production of this cheese was eventually repatriated to Switzerland and a similar version is also produced in Germany. I routinely take a load of Swiss Tilsit back with me when returning from Switzerland. I have tried the German variety from a German delicatessen store in Vancouver, it is a bit different and maybe not exactly to my liking, but it is definitely quite good. When it comes to really pungent cheeses though, I would think that the Munster cheese from the French Alsace, which used to belong to Germany, takes the crown. Happy cheesing, Kip!

If you are interested, here is a link to Wikipedia covering the Tilsit cheese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilsit_cheese

Thanks for the historic background information of the Tilsit Cheese Saga, Joe. I only know the German side of the story and am a hopeless addict of the product. As far as the pungency rating goes there are several contenders on the market, but for me personally the fully ripened Tilsit takes the (cheese)cake! . . .