Stinky Fruit Prohibited   Phuket

In Southeast Asia the durian is said to be "king of fruits" but when you sit down to try it for the first time you might be tempted to call it the "king of foul odors." Spiky on the outside the inside of the durian is a soft consistency and has the odor of rank cheese. The smell of this fruit is so bad that hotels in Southeast Asia do not let guests bring them inside. Even unopened durians smell like decomposing zebras.

Writing in 1856, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace provides a much-quoted description of the flavor of the durian: "A rich custard highly flavored with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavor that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy."

Wallace cautions that "the smell of the ripe fruit is certainly at first disagreeable"; more recent descriptions by westerners can be more graphic. 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."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian