Watch: We Tried China’s Infamous Durian Pizza

We Tried is a series where RADII staff try out unique foods, experiences, and phenomena in China. Drop us a line if you have a suggestion.

If you can’t handle pineapple on pizza, you really don’t want to take a look at the menu for Pizza Hut in China:

A selection of offerings from Pizza Hut’s China menu: (clockwise from left) stuffed crust seafood, durian, Beijing duck, meat feast with pineapple, and New Orleans grilled meat pizza

In this episode of We Tried, RADII team members Ying and Adan take on a cuisine so outrageous that it makes the debate over pineapple pizza seem like child’s play: the durian cheese pizza.

Durian, hailed across Asia as the “King of Fruits”, is notorious for both its pungent odor and saccharine blend of flavors. Die-hard durian defenders swear that the taste, often likened to a blend of garlic, honey, and custard, is acquired. That is, if you can get past the fruit’s cloying fragrance of honeyed gym-socks to acquire it in the first place.

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Conversations surrounding fruit on pizza are often unnecessarily contentious, but this mash-up may actually be worthy of every bit of social media indignation it has stirred up. Just to be sure, we ordered 3 durian pizzas from Excellent Jack, Mamma Pizza, and Pizza Hut.

Watch below to see these two bite off a bit more than they can bear to chew: