Yes, I’ve walked past durian bins in Vietnamese supermarkets here in San Jose, and I couldn’t smell anything.
Then, once when we were vacationing in Kauai, I went to a local farmers market. It was located in a dirt parking lot on the edge of the jungle just north of Hanalei. I was having fun looking at all the tropical fruit and flowers, and I noticed a fetid, rotting smell. “Boy, this jungle is stinky,” I thought. “Probably a lot of rotting vegetation.” Then I noticed I was standing several feet away from a table holding several fresh, ripe durian.
Every week, I have dinner with my extended family who are Thai immigrants. I enjoy native-Thai dishes, to include really strong spices.
Once, they had snacks that were durian-flavored, and asked if I wanted to try an actual durian, which I did the following week.
Never again.
I thought it resembled a combination of gasoline and rotting flesh. I think the food critic quoted above who likened it to turpentine was closer to the truth.
This was many years ago, but I recall someone reheading leftover fish in the office microwave… and a room away, I was wondering who the hell brought in cat food for lunch.
I don’t like the taste or smell of fish, so I wouldn’t enjoy the aroma anyway, but this was just so utterly pervasive. I don’t know how a fish-lover would feel about it. But the only thing that has ever come close to it for offensiveness was when someone burned their microwave popcorn.
Join the club. I’m mad about seafood. In my own work breakroom, I’ve heard people ( and it’s always the same people ) stridently bitching whenever anybody microwaves any seafood, be it fish, shrimp, scallops or whatever. The same smells make me envious of what they’ve got for lunch.
The strident bitchers though seem to have no sense of smell whatsover when it comes to what they cook though. That nauseating fatty stench of the cheap shortening used in the junk foods they microwave, such as ‘Hot Pockets’ or the cheaper frozen dinners, or microwave popcorn. The worst offenders are the ones who cook cheap hotdogs in the toaster oven, or other fatty meats. The smell is bad enough, but the toaster ovens ( which they refuse to ever clean ) have become so fouled with food that just turning them on makes a far-reaching pungent stench that’ll knock a buzzard off of a dung heap. Think filthy dirty fry-oil from a greasy spoon. It begs the question: Who on earth would ever want the food they eat heated inside a vessel that creates these odors?
I live alone and generally can’t be bothered to cook, so my meals tend to be either delivered, from a can/box, or frozen. Of the things I eat, I find that the smell of a microwaved Stouffer’s lasagna lingers longer than anything else – and far longer than I’d like (even after the empty container has been rinsed out and put in the trash). It’s not “stinky” food, but the lingering odor bothers me after a while. Therefore, I prefer to make them when the weather is temperate and I can crack a window. And I would never bring one to work for lunch.
I recall, back when I ate frozen dinners more often, that some of the ones where the box it came in doubled as a kind of cardboard tray ( after peeling off the top layer of cardboard after cooking ) emitted a very bad chemical-ly smell. The food itself tasted good, but that smell definitely put the kibosh on my appetite.
I used to. Then I was doing a shot on a movie in the ( now much-mourned ) Fulton Fish Market in NYC.
Hustling up and down narrow aisles, tracking talent. TRYING not to step in deep puddles of ice water/ fish blood/ fish guts/ fishy stuff. I slipped and fell over. My Steadicam got a bit banged up, and I cut my knee and palm open.
How much bacteria does one get into an open cut when said cut is immersed in aforementioned fish goo? I dunno, but I did a VERY aggressive debriding and lavage after.
Also, I had to drive home barefoot. My sneakers were drenched and I walked to the car, loaded up the cases, kicked them off and drove away.
Ouch. Did it turn out all right? Sounded like a recipe for sepsis.
I was going to add, in the spirit of the OP, and reflective of the season, that black-eyed peas tend to have a lingering effect upon their consumers… As has the chili I made when the weather—finally!----dipped below 40 degrees.
Currently I have home-made sauerkraut in the fridge that leaks a pungent odour everywhere. But it does taste good.
On my first visit to Singapore, I went for a walk to get some fresh air. I was a block or so from the hotel, and my nostrils were assailed by an unpleasant odour. It didn’t take me too long to realise that it was durian. During that same trip some of my Singapore colleagues took me out for dinner, and presented me with a durian dessert - not unpleasant, and the taste is quite unlike the smell.
I had a similar experience when visiting Amsterdam - every so often I would be hit with a strong odour while walking through the streets. In spite of never having visited America at the time, the only association I could make was a “skunky” smell. Of course, I soon realised that’s exactly what it was - skunk marijuana. Put me off smoking dope …
Oh yeah, that. I worked as a contractor at a company in NC, 30+ years ago, where there was one management-type (nobody in my area, fortunately) who got very weird ideas about What Was Proper. He banned microwave popcorn because he thought the smell was unprofessional.
When we ate at an Indonesian restaurant in DC for the first time, 30+ years back, the dessert list included durian ice cream. We’d neve heard of it, and asked the waiter, who said “It’s a foul-smelling tropical fruit”. We tried it. I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t bad-tasting.
THe skunk smell is something I’ve whiffed on most of my recent visits to Manhattan. There tends to be a lot of smoking (of more traditional tobacco) on the streets there - which I guess is a combination of higher population density in general, and also indoor smoking restrictions. But lately a fair bit of it seems to be of the “wacky tobaccy” sort.
That may be the reason he didn’t like it but if it’s overcooked in the microwave, it can set off the fire alarms, resulting in the entire building being evacuated and the fire department showing up. I’ve heard of companies banning it due to the cost. Here, for instance, is a page at HR.com talking about the legality of firing anyone who has microwave popcorn at their desk. It quotes a memo from a Carnival Cruise exec who made the threat, and says the loss of productivity during building evacuations is the reason.
A lot of it, IMO, is not the popcorn itself ( unless it’s burnt ) but the foul odor of the bag/pouch with the chemicals and ink and whatever and the artificial butter or cheese that is so offensive.
Try New York City. I don’t live in Manhattan but instead in Astoria, Queens. Pre-COVID-19, when I was walking to and from the subway 2x daily, I rarely missed a walk where I had to stroll through/ along with clouds of pot smoke. Either vaped or old-school smoked.
Now I am not on the sidewalk every day- but it’s still a part of being out there now. I’m no big fan of drug abuse anyway and I sure do resent having to suddenly inhale someone else’s pot smoke rolling off of their fattie or vape pen.
–Shrug-- Nothing to be done. The new law is the new law ( 2 years old already… ) and once the stuff is 100% legalized for entertainment use, all bets are off.