Durian stir fried with strawberries and MSG trends in China
By Bryan Ke
A street food vendor in China has gone viral for stir frying durian, strawberries, vegetables and monosodium glutamate (MSG) in a rice bowl, which has seemingly becoming a new craze in the country.
Key points:
- Singapore-based durian seller D197 Durian Brother Pte. Ltd. shared the video on Facebook on April 18, jokingly writing in the description, “Changing careers to sell this would be better.” The post has been viewed over 1 million times on Facebook.
- The viral video was originally shared on Douyin on April 14. The user noted in the comment that the video was taken at the Yangfan Night Market in Hunan province, China.
The details:
- The video starts with a customer ordering a durian rice bowl from a street food vendor. Soon after, the man proceeds mixing two chunks of durian, strands of carrots, a spoonful of what looks like MSG, garlic and chili into the blazing wok.
- He then adds a handful of strawberries into the mix, prompting the customer to confusedly ask the man what he did. Explaining, the vendor says the strawberries are there as a “side dish.”
- The vendor finishes stir frying the dish by adding sugar, soy sauce and coriander before putting all of it on top of a bowl of white rice.
- Interestingly, the dish may not be a one-off on social media. A search on Douyin reveals the fruit rice bowl dish has become a new trend in China, with several users posting videos of their meal on the social media platform.
- One Douyin video shows a vendor adding oranges to their rice bowl instead of durian, while another shows a stall in the Yangfan Night Market that serves a strawberry teppanyaki rice bowl.
Online reactions:
- Many Facebook users had mixed feelings after seeing the viral video, with one user jokingly stating, “Finally understand how Italians feel when they see pineapple on pizza.”
- One Facebook user expressed concern about the possibility of their blood sugar spiking after eating the durian rice bowl, commenting, “Durian is already a high-sugar fruit, adding white sugar and strawberries, wow! Is this ruining the original flavor of durian?”
- “What’s wrong? Why treat durian like this? It makes me want to cry,” another Facebook user commented.
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