(I don’t like writing a long blog neither reading a long one, thus I cut this story into (hopefully :-) ) 3 parts - if I have the time and the mood to write them all...)
The story started close to the new year of 2005.
Like any other new year during my stay in Japan so far, my home stay family invited me to a party at their home. Agenda: eating, eating, eating, (eating?), playing cards, and chatting (I forget whether we ate three or four times that time :-) ). Sonoyo (the daughter), asked me what kind of fruit that I like when we had the dessert, and after thinking for a while I replied without any hesitation: “Durian”.
“Is it delicious? I never eat one.”
“Well, I like it. I even like the smell, though lots of people hate it. If I can find it, I can bring one next time if you want to.”
“Really? I’m looking forward for it.”
In the following month I searched Tokyo for Durian, and I couldn’t found one. I also missed Thai Festival that year, where I should have been able to find the fruit easily. Anyway, in April, my family told me that Tina, a friend of mine from my childhood, would visit Japan in May, and they asked whether I wanted something from Indonesia that she could carry with. The same reply as my answer to Sonoyo’s question (also with no hesitation) came out: “Durian”.
May came, and because it was hard to find Durian in Sidoarjo (my hometown) that time, Tina couldn’t bring me one. However, she brought Durian candies instead. It was in quite an amount that after gave some to Pecolin (my homestay mother), many still left. Then, along came the great idea: “Why don’t I give it to my lab mates?”
Durian reputation really precedes it, and only by mentioning that I brought Durian candy to the lab, little commotion occurred :-). One by one my lab mates turned down my offer to try the candy: Kahara just laughed, Kurata and Makii firmly said “no!” Anyway, finally I could find four volunteers that boldly eat what no one had eaten before :-) : my professor, Kim-san, Chou-san, and Yanagita. Similar replies came: it was more delicious than they thought before (I told you so!), but (still), the smell is strong. I was starting to feel glad that four of them like it, until we (they?) realized that there was a small problem (well, small for me, but may be not for them :-) ): unlike the actual fruit, the candy was made from the essence of Durian which has higher concentration, which meant that the taste would stay longer in your tongue. Chou-san didn’t mind about it, but my professor and Kim-san said that the taste leftover was too strong. Yanagita even complained that the taste wouldn’t go even after drinking two cups of coffee.
Another problem came from the smell. Although less than half of the members of my lab ate it, Durian smell spread throughout the room, and like a very aggressive salesman, it refused to go. Yanagita happened to eat it in the experiment room, and at that time no one couldn’t tell whether the smell came from the candy or from gas leaking.
Lessons learned: (1) each person has different perception on anything given to them (I still can’t believe that one can ever dislike something as good as Durian! :-) ). (2) Never eat Durian candy in closed room :-).
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