High up in the lush green mountains of Raub, you can smell them before you see them. The pungent¹ waft² in the morning breeze comes as quickly as it goes, but there is no mistaking: this part of Malaysia is the land of the durian.

在劳勿茂密的绿色山地，你在目睹这些东西之前就能先闻到它们的味道。那种刺鼻的气味在晨风中迅速传播，你肯定不会闻错：马来西亚的这一带是种榴莲的。

Called the “king of fruits” by 19th-century British naturalist³ Alfred Russel Wallace, durian’s overpowering smell – fragrant⁴ to some noses, putrid⁵ to others – has led it to be banned from hotels and public transport across Asia, and has even prompted evacuations from airports and hospitals.

这种水果被十九世纪的英国博物学家Alfred Russel Wallace称为“水果之王”。榴莲这种强烈的气息对一些人来说是香甜，对另一些人来说则是恶臭，这让它在亚洲很多国家的交通工具和酒店里都被禁止携带，甚至曾经在机场和医院引发全员疏散的后果。

However, in China something of a cultish⁶ national obsession⁷ with durian has grown in the past few years, particularly around the Musang King variety, grown almost entirely⁸ in Malaysia.

不过，这些年中国人对榴莲发展出一种邪教般的迷恋，他们尤其喜欢猫山王榴莲的各种品种，而这种榴莲几乎只长在马来西亚。

And where there is Chinese appetite, there is money. In the highlands of Raub, and all across the south-east Asian country, farmers and landowners are tearing up traditional rubber and palm oil crops to harvest this mutant-looking native fruit instead.

而中国人的喜欢吃什么，什么就赚钱。在劳勿的高地，以及在东南亚的各个国家，农民和地主们把以前那些用来产橡胶和棕榈油的作物都给铲掉了，转而种这种看着像变异体的本地水果。

“When I started out, people all told me there was no money in durian, but that couldn’t be more different now,” said Lindsay Gasik, who has written a book on the fruit and runs durian tours across Asia.

Lindsay Gasik专门写了一本关于这种水果的书，并且在亚洲运营着榴莲之旅的活动，她说：“我刚开始做这些的时候，人们都跟我说榴莲不赚钱，但现在看来显然不是这么一回事。”

“I treat durian like a wine because it is like a wine – it is a living organism that changes and ferments⁹ over its lifespan, so you can really do a lot with the flavour. I think that’s what makes people so obsessive¹⁰ over it.”

“我像对待葡萄酒一样对待榴莲，因为它确实就像葡萄酒，它是一种一生都在变化、发酵的生命体，你能在它的味道上做出很多门道来。我想这就是为何人们那么迷恋它。”

Durian’s distinctive¹¹ smell is infamous¹², but its flavour – at once sweet and savoury – adds to its divisiveness. Wallace described it as a “rich custard highly flavoured with almonds”. Feet, butterscotch pudding, ice cream and rotting eggs have also been used as comparisons.

榴莲的气味可以说是臭名昭著，而它的味道得到的评价也两极分化，虽然其中有一部分香甜可口的感觉。Wallace曾经将其形容为“充满杏仁味的醇厚奶冻”，有人说它像牛油糖布丁或者冰激凌，但也有人说它像脚臭或者臭鸡蛋。