My sister told me recently that they were eating durian fruit at home. Dang! It is one of the things I missed about home! The durian is the fruit of trees of the genus Durio. The name durian comes from the Malay word duri (thorn) together with the suffix -an (for building a noun in Malay), meaning “thorny fruit. Revered in Southeast Asia, especially in the Philippines as the “King of Fruits” the fruit is distinctive for its large size, unique odor, and a hard, formidable, sharp, prickly thorn-covered husk. The edible flesh within emits the distinctive odor, which is regarded as either fragrant or overpowering and very strong and penetrating, and offensive, which we locals do not. But it tastes so so good.