Guangzhou restaurant's durian chicken hotpot apparently tastes delicious

It seems like our favourite Southeast Asian fruit is making its mark in China.

Having recently made the news for becoming a pizza topping there, the durian is in the limelight again for being part of a hotpot broth in Guangzhou.

The durian chicken hotpot was the star of YouTube user The Food Ranger's latest video.

Cringing at the thought of the sweet (or smelly) and salty combo?

The Food Ranger, whose real name is Trevor James, hands down a surprising verdict: it's heavenly!

He admits in the video that he didn't expect durian and chicken broth to go well together. But he says in the video description that the dish would have tasted better if a higher-grade durian, like Mao Shan Wang, was used.

Still, he calls the durian he had "amazing", describing it as "creamy, very very soft, almost butterscotch-y, caramel-y and stenchy".

Durian food products have been meeting strong demand in China in recent years, especially after Malaysia started exporting the king of fruits in frozen form to the country in 2011.

Earlier this month, Pizza Hut announced it will be rolling out durian pizza in several Chinese cities, after it reportedly created a buzz in the province of Guangdong where the item was being tested.

huizhen@sph.com.sg