Durian Devotees This spiky South Asian fruit sparks a following like no other.
Food & Wine|August 2023
To Follow a Fruit A conversation with Lindsay Gasik, who chases durian season around the globe
NAOMI TOMKY
Durian Devotees This spiky South Asian fruit sparks a following like no other.

DRY SEASON NEVER COMES for Lindsay Gasik and her husband, Richard Koivusalo. For the past decade, they have been leading durian-centric tours across the planet and documenting their travels on Instagram (@durianwriter). The couple travels around the world according to monsoon seasons, the rainy periods that allow durians to ripen. They land in a country as the season comes to an end, just in time to taste the enormous, spiky fruit at its peak. Sometimes their destination is a well-known durian-growing area, like Thailand or the Philippines-other times, Zanzibar or Hawaii. To learn more or to book a durian tour, visit year of the durian.com. -NAOMI TOMKY 

NT: How does the durian focus change how you travel? Lindsay

This story is from the August 2023 edition of Food & Wine.

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