Ooo, pulling out the big guns! Durian is AWFUL! I have tried it, thank you very much, and I completely agree with the ban. Here is my durian story: I was interested based on my foolish belief that David Attenborough wouldn’t lie about something. In The Private Life of Plants (a 6 hour long botanist’s wet dream nature documentary), he described them as smelling horrid but tasting like caramel cream. So I went to an Asian market in SLC and had the nice woman that runs the store pick one out for me. Because we live so far away from tropical regions, they come frozen. I bought a whole one. It started to thaw by the time I got home…and it filled the car with a very unpleasant smell. I invited my good friend to come try it with me and my husband. I couldn’t keep it in the house, so we moved it out to the deck. It was totally thawed and cracked open. My husband pulled a section off, and we found the ‘caramel cream’ section. He smelled it and gagged. My friend and I, being brave (or stupid), proceeded to hold our breath and eat a piece. I chewed for a few seconds and then when I swallowed, I had to fight the urge to throw up. It was like a mixture between a dirty diaper and compost. CARAMEL CREAM my ass!! I trusted you, Mr. Attenborough! My friend decided to try a second piece and we both spent the rest of the night reliving the terrible taste every time we burped (which was frequent). My husband basically said, “Na na boo boo, you ate garbage!” and then proceeded to put the rest in the garbage can outside. It made the garbage can smell for 2 MONTHS! Who eats it? Oh god, it was awful.