Three exotic fruits you must try before you die

To determine if durian fruit is ripe, people smell the bottom of the stem. If the smell is strong, it's ready to eat. By the time a durian has been exported and reached you, the stem smell has faded, and you would then use the tapping method.

This is achieved by hitting the fruit with a stick and listening for a slightly-hollow "thunk".

Wipe down your largest chopping board or lay a newspaper out on the floor and chop the durian in half using a cleaver. It opens to reveal four seeds covered in pale yellow flesh. You dig out a giant seed and proceed to suck the creamy flesh.

Beware, it's very sweet, very filling, and you don't have much time!

If durian is the King of Fruits, then mangosteen is the Queen. Mangosteen is round and purple, somewhat smaller than a tennis ball. To eat it, you can crush the brittle yet moist rind with your palms to reveal the pure-white delicacy inside. The bitter rind is inedible, and the fruit comes in the form of variously sized wedged segments, the largest of which may hold a solitary seed.

It's said that Queen Victoria offered knighthood to any subject who could bring her a mangosteen fruit in prime condition. Sadly, because of the impossibility of preserving the fruit during the weeks-long journey no one received the prize. It's been suggested that, thanks to the Queen's quest, the fruit achieved the title of "Queen of Fruits," but mangosteen lovers will tell you it has nothing to do with Victoria and everything to do with its taste.

Xanthones are powerful phytonutrients found in few plants and are composed of stable carbon-structure molecules. It's easier to say that xanthones have been shown to be potent antioxidants and to inhibit inflammation.

The mangosteen fruit is believed to contain one of the highest concentrations of xanthones in any one edible source.

I'm not a scientist, I eat mangosteens because they taste so good.