Puerto Rico A Haven For Durian Lovers

"I don't like to use the word 'smell,'" said Mr Juan Miranda Colon, a self-described fanatic of the world's most odoriferous fruit. "I prefer to say it has an aroma."

- Thomas Fuller

LAS VEGAS/PUERTO RICO -

Mr Miranda, a farmer in Puerto Rico, was minutes away from feasting on durian. As its stink wafted through the humid, sticky air of the rainforest around him, he said his tongue tasted sweet with anticipation.

"I consider it the No. 1 fruit on the planet," he said as he watched others messily shove gobs of custardy durian flesh into their mouths. "I start eating, eating, eating. I can't control myself. I wish I had a second stomach."

It was early August, and Mr Miranda was taking part in an annual ritual at Panoramic Fruit, a farm 30 dizzying minutes up a potholed, zigzagging road from the western Puerto Rican city of Mayaguez. A multinational collection of durian fanatics had gathered for the harvest.

An electrician had trekked from Tennessee to get his fix. A doctor had flown in from central California. There was a couple from Florida and a family from Texas.

Desperate would-be buyers from the other side of the island had also come, unannounced and imploring the farm manager for durian.

"I call them the rare-fruit nuts," said Mr Ian Crown, owner of the 38ha farm, who lives most of the year in Massachusetts but treasures his trip to Puerto Rico for the summer harvest of tropical fruits obscure to most Americans: rambutan, mangosteen, pulasan, cupuacu and many others.

But it is durian that grips its enthusiasts with obsession.

Much is made of its odour, which the late American food adventurer Anthony Bourdain compared to that of a dead body left out in the sun.

But the fruit's appearance is also particular and somewhat otherworldly. Covered in very sharp spines, it looks like a giant puffer fish tethered to a tall tree.