What is that Smell?

So, there is a fruit available here called durian that is quite popular with the locals. It has a hard "spiny" husk with a yellowish, custard-like flesh, as shown:

The locals go nuts for it; the flesh is supposed to be yummy. The locals love their durian so much, they even built a mall, a.k.a. The Esplanade, that looks like a durian:

So, call me crazy, but this fruit, adored by hundreds of thousands of asians, smells like the cud of a dead cow. I affectionately refer to durian as, "Puke Fruit." This shit really stinks. and what's worse, the smell of it is so powerful, that it infiltrates your nasal passages and seeps into your cranial membranes. One whiff of this stuff and I can still smell it and taste it in the back of my throat hours later. Sam can't stand it either; we were in the supermarket one day and he and Dana walked by a table full of durian, and Sam says, "Mommy, what is that smell?" ... Out of the mouths of babes, right? But please don't take my word for it, look at what other great men have said about the beloved Puke Fruit [from Wikipedia]:

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.

British novelist Anthony Burgess writes that eating durian is "like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory." Chef Andrew Zimmern compares the taste to "completely rotten, mushy onions." Anthony Bourdain, while a lover of durian, relates his encounter with the fruit as thus: "Its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother." Travel and food writer Richard Sterling says:

“... its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia.”

Other comparisons have been made with the civet, sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs. The wide range of descriptions for the odour of durian may have a great deal to do with the variability of durian odour itself. Durians from different species or clones can have significantly different aromas; for example, red durian (D. dulcis) has a deep caramel flavour with a turpentine odour while red-fleshed durian (D. graveolens) emits a fragrance of roasted almonds. Among the varieties of D. zibethinus, Thai varieties are sweeter in flavour and less odourous than Malay ones. The degree of ripeness has an effect on the flavour as well.

This strong odour can be detected half a mile away by animals, thus luring them. In addition, the fruit is extremely appetising to a variety of animals, including squirrels, mouse deer, pigs, orangutan, elephants, and even carnivorous tigers.

Think about that last paragraph... the strong odor of the durian can be detected HALF A MILE AWAY!!! That's some serious distance for the aroma of a fruit. This stuff is like Satan's custard. People tell me it tastes really good, but I can't bring myself to eat something that smells like vomit. Sorry, call me closed-minded.

 - Scott.