榴莲比萨－ Durian Pizza

China has many odd food combinations, 奶盖茶 'cheese tea' or putting mayonnaise on fruit salad（水果沙拉和沙拉酱）for example, but 榴莲比萨 Durian Pizza is one of the strangest. Full disclosure before we start: I'm a huge fan of durian. However, even I wasn't convinced by this idea before I took my first, heavenly bite.

If you're not familiar with Durian, it's regarded by many people in Southeast Asia as the "King of Fruits". It's famous for its pungent smell: although some consider it sweet and delicious, most people find it disgusting. In countries where the fruit is common, it is banned from public transport and many hotels due to the stomach turning aroma - check out these signs from Thailand and Singapore.

Pizza in China is a bit of a misnomer, given that it normally bears little resemblance to the Italian variety. Finding a standard pepperoni here is a challenge, and you're far more likely to see bizarre toppings like 香芒紫薯 'mango & purple yam' or 培根土豆 ‘bacon and potato'. But opinions on Durian Pizza are the most polarised. Given the (entirely legitimate) objection to putting fruit on a pizza, like the abomination that is the Hawaiian, the concept of a pizza containing nothing but cheese and what many consider to be the most disgusting fruit on the planet raises understandable grievances.

At Liuzhou Meet & Learn, we undertook a survey of our members to gauge their views. Those that don't like it felt very strongly, suggesting that it should be made illegal and that its popularity is indicative of the end of days. But there's no denying that Durian Pizza is considered by many here to be a culinary success, just have a look at the results of our survey...

Interestingly, all the negative votes come from members with western backgrounds, so I suspect we would get very different results if we did the same survey in the UK. However, if you come to China, be sure to give Durian Pizza a try!

Comments

KTV

Everyone loves KTV. Everyone. If you don't like sitting in a dark, enclosed space, listening to your friends murdering classic mandopop hits at ear splitting volume, there has to be something wrong with you. I've heard people ask what the point of learning to read Chinese is, what with the use of pinyin as a phonetic system, and the ability to use your phone to translate text. The answer is obvious: if you can't read characters, how will you sing Chinese songs at KTV? In China, and across Asia, KTV culture is huge and, if you want to engage with life here, learning to sing a couple of songs in the local language will get you a lot of kudos. At Liuzhou Meet & Learn, we organise regular KTV evenings, and I'm always surprised by how good people are at singing, particularly our local Chinese members - unfortunately, us foreigners don't always hold up our end of the bargain and I've witnessed some performances that made my ears bleed. I admit to bei...

射箭 - Archery

As the end of the winter break draws near, we decided to release our inner warrior and shoot some arrows... Global tensions are high at the moment, relationships between super powers increasingly strained - who knows when things will suddenly flare up and tip over into full scale war? After the inevitable apocolypse, we're going to need skills like archery so, ever one to plan for every possible eventuality, I decided Liuzhou Meet & Learn shouldn't leave these kind of things to chance. Like a band of merry men we went to the local archery range for a lesson and some practice. After a being taught the basics of posture and technique, we got to the shooting and, in a suprising turn of events, we actually weren't that bad at it, definitely more Robin Hood than Friar Tuck. Apart from one member though, who kept hitting my target instead of the one in front of him; but I won't name and shame. *ahem* Isaac. If you're interested in joinin...

国庆节 - National Day

Famous for being the busiest travel week of the year, when foreign residents who've spent any period of time in China will tell you to stay at home to avoid the crowds, 国庆节 National Day, or 黄金周 Golden Week, is a public holiday where seemingly the entire country leaves their villages and crowds into the cities and popular travel destinations. I experienced the holiday last year and, as such, decided to stay in Liuzhou this time, to avoid (not entirely successfully) being jostled and gawped at by tens of thousands of farmers. Besides, one of our members at Liuzhou Meet & Learn has some connections within the local tourism department and wanted some foreign volunteers to be taken around the city to attend the various events taking place. So, four members from our group set off to be photographed doing everything from walking around, to eating noodles, to being force fed tea by members of the local ethnic minority groups. One thing that is so seductive about living in a sm...

Liuzhou Meet & Learn

Search This Blog