Mini Mooncake Mhonthong - Thailand

When I purchased these cute little mooncakes, I did in fact notice the picture of our beloved "King of Fruit", the durian, on the front of the package.

But knowing that just because there is a cake called an "apple cake" it does not mean that all you are going to taste is pure sweet apples - but rather that it would be a nice cakish cake with a slight apple flavor. As well, carrot cake tastes NOTHING like carrots whatsoever. So I saw the cute little mooncakes, the picture of the durian and bought it anyway.

I thought today would be a nice day for the mooncakes. Dd had been bugging me for some time to allow her to make some "Bento Boxes" for lunch today - and I finally let her. It took her over a half hour to make her cute little boxes for her and her brother - consisting of soda crackers w/butter (since we were out of cheese) and pepperoni, shredded carrot and apple slices "carved" into various objects like a butterfly, moon etc.

Bento boxes are Asian and mooncakes are Asian - so it kind of all goes together.

Neither one wanted to try the mooncakes initially. Dd took the first bite (she can be very brave!)..."DURIAN! Sweet but like durian - this is going in the garbage." That didn't sound too encouraging to me - but I thought how much like durian could a little cake taste. A lot!

I took a small bite and it was PURE DURIAN tasting. No cake taste with a mild durian flavor. It was kind of a cake exterior but it was dense and inside was a paste? of what tasted like a spoonful of durian. I admit I did not even swallow it. Mine too went into the garbage.


The wee lad said "This is terrible smelling (it wasn't really) - like durian ...just say I didn't want to try it".

"Mooncakes are a Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. ...Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony as well as the name of the bakery and filling in the moon cake. Imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit may surround the characters for additional decoration." (from Wikipedia)

Durian - "The King of Fruit" ....FINALLY!

Yesterday my daughter's wish came true. Probably way back in November we read about durian "King of the Fruit" - and ever since she has wanted to taste it. I've never been brave enough. A month or so we found some dried durian "chips" and I thought that would satisfy her. It didn't. She still wanted to taste one fresh (well as fresh as you can get it in the USA - which means frozen fresh).

So whenever we'd walk past the frozen whole durians at the store she'd comment how she'd still like to taste one. A frozen whole durian costs about $1.60 a lb and they are quite heavy. A hard spiky shell on the outside, a seed on the inside - and you end up paying for a lot that will go to waste. So it was partly the cost that kept me from buying one for us to try.

Today we were looking at the durians as usual when dd piped up excitedly "Look!" It was a package of frozen fresh durian out of it's shell. One pound packages cost $3.89. I decided we could buy one.

When we got home - I left the durian in the garage to unthaw (and to keep the odor from penetrating the entire house). I noticed the cashier put the packaged durian in a sep. bag from the rest of the groceries and triple bagged it. She knew.

The durian came in a hard plastic lidded container that was wrapped in plastic. Inside were 2 "rolls" of durian wrapped in plastic wrap. Even with all the wrappings and inside the container, you could smell it. Not a nasty bathroom smell (as some folks claim) - but rather it smelled like onions. Strong onions.


After supper tonight I reminded the girl about the durian and we, along with little brother, went out to the garage. I brought my camera, notebook and 3 spoons. Dd was so eager for the "unveiling". She takes a whiff, "Smells terrible!" But she bravely takes some into her mouth. Her verdict was, "Tastes like onion pudding...not all that great but still glad I tasted it!" "Yuck". That was the verdict of her doll Rosie, who also had a taste. The boy disappeared inside - he was not brave enough to take a chance on "onion pudding."

I was scared too. But I tried it. It was sweet and fruity but oniony at the same time. It wasn't nasty - unless you think onions are nasty. Not my idea of a fruit flavor - but I've definitely tasted worse things in my life. The consistency was very creamy and it still had some ice particles in it - so it was almost like durian ice-cream, albeit with stringy bits inside.

So now it's done. No more requests for a whole durian. No more wondering how bad it smells or tastes. The mystery is solved. I'm glad we did it. It might sound wasteful, but it's all in the name of science and education you see, but the rest of it ended up in the garbage can. It's not something you can really keep in the fridge to eat later in the week, and even if it could - who would eat it?