Nonsense my ass.
I’ve eaten durian in several places in Asia. It smells just like an open sewer. The seeds have a custard-like coating, and this is the part you suck off to eat.
And yes, if the fruit is ripe, the taste is pretty good.
To say that durian does not smell like an open sewer is just fatuous. In Singapore, if you are new to the place, you could be frightened off eating at one of the many amazing hocker stands that serve food that is equal to, if not better, than a white-tablecloth restaurant.
Reason, as you approach, it smells like the vendors are squatting over a trench as they sell their food. They aren’t, its just that someone there is hocking durian, and you can smell it for blocks. 6 blocks and if the wind is right, more.
Nobody sells better chow than the Singapore hocker stands.
In the Midwest a hocker is a large gob of phlegm that a person spits out would be hard to get that visual out of the head while ordering food from hawkers....
Durian looks like an overgrown Osage orange.
“Hawker,” not, “hocker.”
...and I happen now to love super-ripe Durian, but I certainly didn’t the first time I ate it decades ago...