China has a unique interpretation of western fast food. From the dry pork and seaweed donut at a Chinese Dunkin Donuts to a pizza featuring – wait for it – shrimp tempura, wasabi mayonnaise, squid rings, pineapple, fish cakes and a hot dog-stuffed crust, the country likes to put its own spin on things.
While Pizza Hut's above-mentioned pie sounds like the acid-fueled creation of an especially hungry college student, the American fast food chain recently unveiled a slightly more tame addition to its menu: the durian pizza.
That's right, the fleshy Asian fruit whose odor Julia Child so eloquently described as “dead babies mixed with strawberries and Camembert” is now a pizza topping in China.
How does it taste? Thanks to the folks at the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time blog, we have the answer. Taste-tested by 10 WSJ reporters, the verdict came down with four respondents endorsing the durian pie, three opposing it and three describing the taste as “interesting”. According to their analysis, the pizza actually detracted from the durian's flavor, disappointing lovers of the fruit but rendering it tolerable to the haters.
Pizza Hut is now offering the durian pizza in select Chinese cities. While it received mixed reviews from the WSJ staff, Chinese consumers are clearly into the dish. Pizza Hut chef Wei Haojie, who works at the company's Dongzhimen outlet in Beijing, told China Real Time his shop had received numerous orders for the durian pie, however it's created a small problem in his work.
Haojie told China Real Time: “I myself can’t bear the smell, so when people order this one, I need to ask another cook to help do it.”
[Photo via Pizza Hut]
