gas or durian?

[x9200]

A few years ago, came through Heathrow with a reasonably big tupperware stuffed with durian. I had frozen it, cling flimed it with several layers, masking taped it several layers, covered it with newspapers several layers of it lastly stuffed it into DD's puffer jacket from Pradamark (aka Primark)...

I did the same (bought a large plastic container for it) and actually got the customs checking my luggage. I believe it was a random check but they were more interested in electronics than this large package. It smelled like hell. I guess they have people with dirty, stinking underwear stuffed inside the luggage on daily bases so nobody even bothered me with questioning.

[JR8]

Harrods used to stock Msian durians, chinatown only stock Thai ones. Not the same lah. And the price

Wah so 'Thai-thai' what!

That's interesting, I didn't know there were differences due to country of origin, but thinking about it, can see how that might be.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Malaysian one have a very strong aroma but supposedly much better tasting, while Thai ones tend to not smell quite as strong, but are a lower grade of Durian, or so I've been told, anyway. Supposedly they don't taste as good. I've tried both and don't like any of them.

[bgd]

Interesting, but it's definitely not a durian smell we get at the condo entrance, but one that's a dead-ringer for UK natural gas. It could be a Rafflesia plant or something similar.

It might be gas

[Mi Amigo]

... a smell very similar to the natural gas used in the UK for heating and cooking. (I know, the gas itself doesn't smell, so they add something to it so that you can more easily detect it when there's a leak).

Didn't this happen in c.1970s? Mains gas, for cooking was odourless. So if you left an unlit hob on you risked suffocation and/or blowing your house up, so they added an odour to it.

The old town gas (made from coal at the gasworks) did, I believe, have an odour of sorts (but maybe they also added some more pong for safety reasons). Then we switched over to 'North Sea Gas' (as we used to all it) in the 70s, which is (AFAIK) basically methane and therefore odourless; hence the addition of an 'odorant':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas#Use

[Mi Amigo]

Interesting, but it's definitely not a durian smell we get at the condo entrance, but one that's a dead-ringer for UK natural gas. It could be a Rafflesia plant or something similar.

It might be gas

Yeah, that's what I kept thinking. So I did a sniff test to make sure it wasn't. After smelling the 'UK gas flavour' downstairs I then sampled the bouquet of the (unlit) town gas coming from our kitchen hob. The latter is different, smelling more like the bottled gas we used to use on camping holidays. So hopefully I can sleep safely at night.

[BedokAmerican]

When I first smelled durian, I was at Giant and the smell reminded me of produce that had been left out too long and was in the process of starting to decompose. It didn't smell rotten, more like pre-rotten....if that makes sense.

[durain]

is there no way to "seal" durian smell? air tight container? vacuum pack? coffee beans?

[JR8]

The latter is different, smelling more like the bottled gas we used to use on camping holidays.

Ooh, you're making me nostalgic for Calor Gas in the big blue bottles, and camping holidays in Brittany

p.s. Seems amusing now the in-camp social pecking order was decided by the scale of family tent, and whether you had an 'extension' out front which was frightfully posh.