February 4, 2008

Durian: As you may recall from the post on 2/2 (happy belated groundhog day), upon our arrival in San Diego, Bryan and I told Caleb and Dana about this amazing fruit we had heard about. We went on a team search for the fruit and got one in a Vietnamese shop and left it on the counter to ‘continue to ripen.’ On several occasions Caleb or Dana mentioned that we should cut it open and try it; Bryan said it would be best to cut on Monday morning and we could have some with our cereal. Caleb and Dana were disappointed, but patient.

Background: Before going further, Caleb has a long and illustrious career of pulling practical jokes on Bryan and I (as well as many other innocent upstanding citizens). When Bryan and I went out dinner with the gang in LA, lance told a story about the fruit Durian. He told us that it was the ‘King of Fruit’ and that it tasted really good, but that it was famous for being stinky. This is a quote about durian from Wikipedia (so it has to be accurate) - Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:

“ ... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.”

So for two full days the fruit sat on the counter in the house. We made sure to not let them look it up, or learn about it… which was easy because they were busy being great hosts so they didn’t get too involved in the cantaloupe sized fruit with a woody / thorny exterior. Monday morning, sure enough, once we had cleaned up (and packed our bags), it was time for the reveal. We each got our tools, Bryan with the digital camera and I with a sharp knife and a cutting board – I cut open the fruit to reveal an inside that had hard pulp and areas of custard like goo.

Dana’s first reaction was, ‘It smells likel gasoline.’ Caleb without hesitation said, ‘It smells like butt!’ Sure enough, the fruit emited a pungent odor that quickly permeated the kitchen. Bryan snapped off a few pics of their faces as I passed out spoons and said, ‘It smells delicious, let’s have some!’ I had a couple of spoonfuls as Caleb and Dana’s expectations disintegrated into confusion and disgust; the texture was like that of jello-pudding with a unique sweet taste that was actually quite pleasant. Caleb’s last comments for the morning were, ‘stay far enough away from me, or I will kick you.’

Cannonballing for San Francisco: I had a couple of calls to make so Bryan took the wheel and got us to LA where we stopped at Griffith Park and took in a spectacular view of Los Angeles from the hills. We then booked it up the 101 (detour for another round of In-n-Out Burger) and dropped off the highway onto the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) at Pismo Beach and drove up the coast where Bryan treated me to a fancy dinner at Nepenthe restaurant in Big Sur. (Definition of Nepenthe: Anything which effects the welcome forgetfulness of sorrow. Nepenthe Reference: ‘the raven’ by Edgar A. Poe)

PCH: I am pretty sure the PCH was the result of a drunken wager between two civil engineers, because there is no other rational explanation for the engineering required to run a thread of asphalt along the ridiculously winding coastline; where from Cambria to Big Sur (~80mi) there are almost no commercial establishments and only a few residential sites. There are, however, breathtaking views of Coastal Mountains on our right sloping, but more often diving into the Pacific Ocean on our left. As we were driving near sunset, the views were even more spectacular, but when coupled with the hairpin turns and switchbacks that were often into the setting sun, the guardrail didn’t seem quite tall or sturdy enough. Here is my proposal: stop spending millions of dollars maintaining a two lane highway, turn it into an adventure park and let it run north on odd days and south on even days and let the sierra club administer the types of traffic to be allowed and clear the landslides (we drove through debris of one and over new pavement from several)

The listing;
Day Miles: 575; Trip Miles: 5,288
Durian Serving Size per Legally Mandated Nutrition Facts: 140g
Durian Percentage daily values of Vitamins A & C: 0.0%
Cost of a double double value meal at In-n-Out Burger: $5.29 +tax
Types of sandwiches (burgers): 3
Year I&O founded: 1948 (Irvine, CA)
Number of I&O stores: >200
Year McDonalds founded: 1940 (San Bernadino, CA)
Number of McDonalds stores Dec. 2006: 31,045
Big Mac Percentage daily values of Vitamins A & C: 2% / 6%
New Music from Bryan: Battles, The Stills, The National
Question: Were The Monkees the first boy band?
Line of the day: “You have to ask yourself: is the juice worth the squeeze?”
Rte Home: 5N, 101N, 1N (PCH), 17N, 280N, 380N, 101N
Population of Gaviota, CA: 94
Exit north of Gaviota on 101: Nojoqui Farms
Seriously