They’re spiky and some of them stink, but America is coming to embrace, albeit gingerly, the durian and other odd imports.

“It smelled so bad, I couldn’t even put it in my mouth,” recalls Andrew Pleak, creative director of Manhattan Fruitiers, an up-scale purveyor of exotic fruits. “I had to leave the house.”

He’s talking about the durian fruit, which in parts of Southeast Asia is called the “king of all fruits.” The nineteenth-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously said the flesh tastes like rich almond custard. But the odor of a ripe durian is so repugnant that it has been banned from certain hotels in East Asia as well as from public transportation in Singapore.

“It’s almost like it’s got a little bit of meat to it:” FLYP took a sampling of exotic fruit to the streets for an impromptu tasting. Watch the video here.

The durian is just one example of a growing number of exotic fruits that are intriguing shoppers and cooks with their odd shapes and vibrant colors. For those who test the waters, there is a treasure trove of colors, taste, vitamins and antioxidants to be found in everything from the vitamin C-laden Chinese lychees to the folate-rich South American cherimoya.

Most such exotic fruits, which are commonly found in Chinatowns and Hispanic markets, are imported from Asia or South America. Pleak gets most of the fruits for Manhattan Fruitier from the New York City Terminal Market, the largest wholesale fruit and vegetable import distribution center in the U.S.

“Many tropical fruits have started coming into the U.S., and more are on their way,” says Adam Gollner, the author of widely praised book The Fruit Hunters.
Check out our interactive page, which gives descriptions, origins and facts about ten of the most exotic fruits (from the durian to a cactus pear, mangosteen to a cherimoya) that you can find in your nearby market.
One of the reasons such produce is gaining in popularity, Gollner explains, is irradiation technology, which allows the import of items previously prohibited because of pest concerns. Most “ultra-exotic” fruits, as Gollner calls them (to distinguish them from the commonplace exotics like pineapples, papayas and mangos) are treated by radiation.

This is one reason why America’s few exotic-fruit growers forsee future financial growth. “I think the future looks good for tropical fruit growers,” says Louise King, president of the Tropical Fruit Growers of South Florida. Since getting together in the 1980s, the 100 or so growers in her organization—who represent about 600 to 700 acres of land—have united to inform the public about their crop, raise money for research and deal with bug and growth problems.

The organization have seen an increasing interest in their crop in recent years. Gollner goes so far as to call it a boom, one he traces to an increasing knowledge of and interest in food, ease of travel to exotic destinations, greater concern with healthy living and a new openness to other cultures.

“By eating fruits like mangosteens and durians,” says Gollner, “we learn about the vastness of the world and our place in it.”
Take a wander through the Chinatown markets in Chicago in our short video.