How about an Interesting as HECK thread???

[FlyingClayDisk]

I too have had the good (or bad) experience of spending years in other countries, but most of what I have learned echoes what you say here...

Mangos, Avocados, Grapefruits, Bananas, and many more are among those things which I see in the supermarket and immediately utter a sad grunt... what passes for fruit here in the States breaks my heart.  

Tiny, dry, rock-hard, shriveled, overly cultivated, freeze dried, gas cured in a cargo container, most fruit that hasn't seen the sun for months as it's offered up for top dollar as 'a deal.'

It's almost a good thing that most American consumers are totally unaware of how good some food stuffs are... because no one would buy what is offered if they understood that what they are getting is dregs, or garbage so very substandard as to be virtually unsellable in the countries where they are produced locally.

... and don't get me stated on meat and fish...  or chocolate.

"Good (or bad)"...is exactly right!  There's plenty of both.

In keeping with the theme of this thread, but hitting on another 'interesting as heck' item, also from SE Asia, is the infamous Durian.  Now, most have probably heard about the Durian fruit (or is it a nut?  I think it's a fruit), so nothing too amazing with that alone, but for anyone who has seen a fresh Durian up close (and personal...and Durian gets real personal real quick) there's a pretty big surprise.

I didn't know what a Durian was before I went to SE Asia, and the first time I was 'assaulted' by one of them I wondered what the horrible stench was.  What I thought was a corpse rotting in a dumpster turned out to be a guy standing out in front of a market with a barrel full of Durians and he was using a parang (a machete like tool) to split them open for people.  Good GAWD, it was horrible!  But, being the Curious George I am, I had to go check it out. 

There are many foods in this world that we wonder why anyone would ever be the first to say..."Hey, let's eat this!"...of all of them, Durian takes 1st place by a wide, wide, margin!  For starters, the Durian is covered by a thick husk and shell which is covered in sharp spikes.  If one of these things ever fell out of a tree and hit a person it would seriously injure them.  Secondly, cutting into one is like cutting into a 4" thick coconut shell, and it takes a heavy blade to bust one open.  Often times the tool of choice is a shorter, but heavier steel, machete like tool known as a "parang'.  When the fruit is still whole it gives off a pretty unpleasant odor, but when you bust one of these things open the stench hits you like a brick to the forehead!  But you're not there yet.  A Durian is about the size of a large coconut, but the part you eat is about the size of a golf ball at the very center.  By the time you get there it smells like you've butchered some 3 day old roadkill.  And the part you eat smells even worse than that (if you can even imagine this).  The stench is so bad it will literally take your breath away and make your eyes water the first time you experience it.  How anyone could have ever said..."Hey, lets eat this"...just defies imagination.  But, "when in Rome, do as the Romans", right? So, now it was time to try it for myself.

There are very few things on this planet which don't taste like what they smell like (smell plays a huge role in our taste).  Well, Durian is one of these things.  Amazingly, it doesn't taste at all like what it smells like.  It's an acquired taste to be sure, and you can't eat it in the vicinity of the husk it came out of because you'll simply vomit.  In my case I waited to try it until I was over a mile away from where they were cutting them.  It still smelled pretty horrifying though.  When I popped a piece of it in my mouth it tasted like cherry at first, but the richest cherry flavor I've ever eaten.  It has the consistency of liver (a very weird mouth feel), and it tastes like cherry with garlic.  You know that overwhelming,  almost gagging, richness you get from eating a clove of raw garlic, well it was just like that.  It was this ultra-rich cherry-garlic flavor.  It was so rich it was difficult for me to even swallow.  I didn't particularly care for it personally, but the local people think Durian is a delicacy, and eat it like it's going out of style.

Not a single thing is normal about the Durian.  It's hostile to handle, very difficult to cut open, stinks beyond imagination, feels like eating liver, and tastes like cherry-garlic.  If nothing else...Durian is "Interesting as HECK!"