Have you ever had durian?

[lieqiang]

I've had it, it's popular over most of SE Asia.

It's okay, the taste is good but the texture is a bit off-putting since it rides the line line between solid and pasty. The smell can be bad not always, sometimes it smells to me more like onions other times more rotten. I've never had to cut one open, have always bought it in plastic wrapped chunks from street vendors.

[lubby]

After seeing that cats reaction to this I'll pass. I actually cracked up laughing seeing how the cat reacted. Smelling limburger cheese made me gag. my husband tasted a piece and was repulsed by it. We threw it out LOL.

[Marie Joseph]

I've never eaten it because I can't get past the smell.

Several of the other attendees at a conference I was at had bought some durian fruits at a market and opened one of them up during a break time. The smell was horrible, like garbage on a hot day mixed with arse and B.O. It smelled so bad that I wasn't the only one gagging on it.

Limburger cheese is another one that really stinks. Worked with a guy who loved the stuff and you could always tell which phone he had been using because when you went to use the phone he had been on last it would smell like crap.

I'll take everyone's word that durian tastes better than it smells, lol

[pikabike]

I never tried it, but a young boy, the grandson of friends, HAD to try a durian boba just because I warned him it was famous for having a gag-inducing smell. The waiter at this Vietnamese restaurant more diplomatically recommended that he try another flavor instead. Nope; such warnings only served to heighten the desirability of forbidden fruit.

All eyes were riveted on the kid when the boba arrived. (There was no odor detectable to us nonconsumers.) He delicately sipped a bit from the straw, got a perplexed look on his face, swallowed carefully, paused, and repeated a few times. At first he said it was “not bad.” Then maybe he enjoyed the astonished reactions from the rest of us—and the approving smile of the waiter—because he began drinking faster and said, “I kind of like it.”

But it didn’t last. I could see his enthusiasm diminish after a few more moments. Grandma watched carefully. When he sipped and then spit it back into the straw, she instantly snapped, “That’s enough! No more for you.” Yeah, Grandma had had to clean up puke on other occasions.

Hard for me to imagine a worse smell than strong cheeses. Sometimes when a dish goes past me in a restaurant I look around to see if someone puked. When an item that I spec’ed “No blue cheese/feta/gorgonzola” mistakenly had some in it that was then picked out, the smell and lingering taste still remind me of puke. GROSS.

[LuckyGem]

I like durian a lot.

I found a whole durian at an Asian market in L.A. and took it home, they have them frozen.

Spoiler

(99 Ranch Market)

When it thawed (I thawed it on the balcony outdoors - summertime), cut it open (still outdoors) and the scent wasn't overpowering.

So I took it inside and carved it up. It had smooth creamy delectable pods inside. The scent smells like natural gas to me, but the flavor is like at first pungent and oniony then it becomes like this tutti fruity flavor. I really like it a lot.

[slomofo]

I can't eat it. I don't like the smell, I don't like the taste, and I don't like the texture. My wife used to eat it periodically, but has since stopped because everyone complained about the smell.

[ohhwanderlust]

It's only ok. I can't stand it fresh, but when mixed into a dish in very small amounts, it's acceptable.

Eh who am I kidding, I don't like it.

[arctic_gardener]

I've had the Thai variety, which is supposed to be milder. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, the smell is unpleasant, but not to the point of being revolting. The flavour and texture are very good.

You know what smells truly revolting? Blue cheese. Boiled beef. Offal.

[415_s2k]

Repulsive fruit. People that say that it "smells like hell but tastes like heaven" are delusional... it tastes the same that it smells and you burp it for a day or two after.