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Food

These Delicious Desserts Smell Like Gym Socks

Thanks to chefs cleverly slipping it to customers in traditional desserts like pastries, rice pudding, and ice cream, long-reviled durian is finally broadening its reach in the US.

Durian fruit is known as the "king of fruit" in Southeast Asia. But outside its natural homeland, its reputation isn't quite so regal. Thanks to its signature powerful odor, Western supermarkets have long been loathe to even carry the adored yet malodorous fruit.

READ: I Finally Lost My Durian Virginity

To be accurate, some varieties of durian are known to emit a certain rotten-onion-wearing-gym-socks aroma, but there are other varietals that do smell like mango, pineapple, and coconut mixed into one. Unfortunately, only the former variety is allowed to be imported into the US. But the fruit's popularity has endured for over 400 years and I refuse to believe that people are that willfully, stupidly masochistic. Regardless of smell, durian is food and durian tastes like nothing else on the planet—in a good way.

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Still, I always thought it was a bit of overkill.

Durian's reach is broadening in the US. Thanks to chefs slipping it to customers in cleverly constructed pastries, ice cream, and the famous mid-autumn festival mooncakes, people are slowly but surely taking to the stinky king in increasing numbers—its fetid reputation be damned.

READ: Vietnamese Ice Cream Hysteria Spans Three Cultures

I really wanted help understanding the complexities of durian fruit and how it is prepared, so I decided to travel with my Mandarin-speaking friend, Janet Cao, to Monterey Park in the San Gabriel Valley, where I'd heard pastry chefs were doing really exciting things with the stuff. I dearly love Chinese food, but had still never tried a dessert with durian in a starring role.

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The city of Monterey Park is home to the largest plurality of Chinese in North America, and is a gold mine for getting durian incorporated in smoothies, rolls, pies, and also straight-up in its native, unvarnished form. It's a quality destination for the durian-curious and durian-devoted alike.

I first visited Vicki Leung of pastry shop Premier Dessert Arts. Though inspired by the durian-friendly, Hong Kong-style desserts of her Guangdong province hometown, her recipes are entirely her own.

"I moved to the US in 2001. I lived in Colorado and worked in an office, and made pastries for my co-workers," Leung told Janet in Mandarin. "I wanted to do what I love." So she went back to China, attended culinary school, moved to the San Gabriel and opened up her shop in September. It was a big hit right off the bat. Durian-eaters played a big part in it.

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She told me the clientele used to be 80 percent locals, almost exclusively Chinese, but the balance is shifting. "People are driving an hour to come here" and eat durian, she explained, noting the lack of durian shops in the increasingly Asian neighboring Inland Empire region of Southern California. She already has plans to open three more locations with her husband Eric, who is in China attending culinary school.

Presentation is a major focus of Leung's dishes, notably with the popular "Durian Black Sticky Rice Snow White." While durian isn't the star, Leung has the confidence to let a lump of durian cream just sit there amid the black-and-white landscape, unadorned. The simple Durian Rolls—just coconut milk skin wrapped around a durian filling—is also excellent.

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Compared to the American sugar bomb desserts we usually eat in the US, Hong Kong desserts are far less sweet, and aren't afraid to let the fruit do the talking. Surprisingly enough, for its boisterous reputation, I found durian desserts to be generally subdued. Like I was teased—I wanted more.

Sunny Bakery in nearby San Gabriel is far less timid with their durian. Their durian cakes hit you with the inexplicably sharp creaminess of the fruit, and they hit hard. The smoothies even more so. I like durian, but the rawer it gets, the realer it gets. Once blended, it really fills the room. Janet, who liked the previous durian desserts, referred to the drink as an "onion smoothie."

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There's no shame in taking your durian with a mixer. It has a wonderful consistency and a complex, exciting flavor, but I prefer it in ice cream and cakes to straight-up-no-chaser. If talented chefs like Leung keep churning it out, the King will be sure to bring more American subjects under its stinky banner.

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