每当我的朋友鲍勃·哈立德(Bob Halliday)谈起榴莲，那种传说中臭得像垃圾一样的热带水果，他不光会怀着美好遐想垂涎三尺，还会“像喷泉一样冒泡泡”。那就是在我们启程前往曼谷北部一座果园时他说的原话。那里，那些危险的尖尖的绿色果实在高耸的树干上晃晃悠悠。

I confess to the same passion with what must be the world’s smelliest fruit.

我以同样的激情发誓，那绝对是世界上最臭的水果。

What is it about the durian? Shaped like a rugby ball with large thorns that can pierce even the most callused hands, durian stinks so badly that it’s banned from airplanes, hotels and mass transit in most Southeast Asian cities. In a part of the world where rules are constantly bent and broken, carrying a durian into confined spaces is not taken lightly, punishable by scowls or eviction.

榴莲到底是个什么样的存在？它的形状像个橄榄球，全身长满了足以刺穿最粗糙手掌的巨刺。因为实在太臭，榴莲被禁止进入机场、酒店和大多数东南亚城市的大众交通工具。在这方规矩往往被打破和扭曲的土地上，携带榴莲进入被禁止的场所却坚决不被容许，惩罚方式是被臭脸或直接赶出。

Yet aficionados like Bob and me will travel terrible distances, cancel important appointments — do anything — to scarf down globs of custardy flesh from a durian. While many Thais like their durians harvested early so the interior is still hard and can be neatly handled, I like an over-ripened durian, which has the consistency of cottage cheese. It’s a very messy affair.

然而像鲍勃这样的榴莲粉丝不惜跨越千山万水，取消所有重要约会，付出所有——只为狼吞虎咽一瓣瓣蛋奶冻般的榴莲果肉。虽然许多泰国人喜欢趁榴莲尚未熟透就将其采摘，这样内部的果肉比较硬，易于干净利落地处理，我却偏爱有些熟过头的榴莲，吃起来有乡村奶酪的那种绵软粘稠。那可是个邋遢的画面。

It goes without saying that durian is a polarizing and controversial fruit. (I take pleasure in typing that sentence because there is probably no other time you can combine “controversial” and “fruit.”)

毋庸置疑，榴莲是一种两极化而富有争议的水果（我超享受键入这句话时的感觉，因为或许你不会有其它机会把“富有争议”和“水果”这两个词联系在一起了吧）。

There is a long tradition of durian haters who cannot get past the smell and gooey-ness of durian, especially among Western visitors to Southeast Asia. Simon de La Loubère, a French diplomat who came here in the 17th century and wrote with unusual empathy about the Kingdom of Siam, drew the line at durian, describing it as “unbearable” because of its smell.

讨厌榴莲的人有一个集体特征就是那种黏糊糊的恶臭的记忆总让他们久久挥之不去，尤其是那些去东南亚的西方人。西蒙·德·拉·鲁贝尔(Simon de La Loubère)，一位17世纪来到此处的法国外交官，每每写到暹罗王朝都怀着不寻常的情结，除了在提到榴莲时，将其气味描述为“令人无法忍受”。

But as a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades who has always sought to write fairly and dispassionately, I dispense with objectivity for a moment and attempt an ode to what the Malaysians rightly call the king of fruits.

即使如此，作为一个从事了近20年海外工作的驻外记者，一个永远追求公平、理性地写作的记者，我要暂时抛开客观来为这马来西亚人的水果之王大唱赞歌。

Yes, I freely admit that when ripe it can smell like a dead animal. Yes, the fruit is difficult to handle, bearing likeness to a medieval weapon. But get down to the pale yellow, creamy flesh, and you’ll experience overtones of hazelnut, apricot, caramelized banana and egg custard. That’s my attempt at describing durian. But words fail; there is no other fruit like it. Bob compares it to the works of Olivier Messiaen, the 20th-century French composer: complex, dissonant, but with an overall impression of sweetness.

没错，我发自内心地承认它成熟后闻起来就像是动物的死尸。没错，这水果可不好对付，它看起来像中世纪的武器。然而，尝一口它外皮里面滑腻的淡黄色果肉，你将感受到满口馥郁：混合了榛果、杏子、焦糖香蕉和鸡蛋布丁的醇厚。那就是我对榴莲的感受。语言在此处是如此苍白，没有任何一种水果可以与之相比拟。鲍勃将它比作20世纪法国作曲家奥利维·梅西安(Olivier Messiaen)的作品：复杂、不和谐，但总的来说给你一种甜美的印象。

The first time I tasted durian was when I was posted in Kuala Lumpur 15 years ago. Trucks piled high with the fruit would come in from the Malaysian countryside, and I would spend evenings sitting with friends on plastic stools by the roadside sampling different varieties. Unlike the Thais, who cut durians down from trees, Malaysians usually wait for them to fall. The result is a much riper and stronger-tasting durian, sometimes slightly fermented. Durian farmers in Malaysia have been known to wear helmets: No one wants to be on the receiving end of a five-pound spike-bomb. Malaysians also believe that durian is an aphrodisiac. When the durians fall, the sarongs go up, goes a Malaysian saying.

第一次吃榴莲是15年前我刚被派到吉隆坡的时候。堆满榴莲的卡车从马来西亚郊区驶来。无数个夜晚，我和朋友们坐在路边的塑料凳上品尝各色品种。马来西亚人不像泰国人那样从树上砍，而是等它们自己落下来，从而得到更熟更重口味的榴莲，有时甚至会微微发酵。马来西亚的榴莲果农以佩戴头盔著称——谁也不想成为一个五磅重的狼牙炸弹的目标。马来西亚人还认为榴莲是一种春药。有句马来俚语是这么说的：当榴莲落下，纱笼飘起。

We live in a time when chemists and cooks have joined hands to concoct foods of unrivaled complexity in everything from packaged snack food to wallet-crushing meals at Michelin-starred restaurants.

我们正生活在一个化学家与厨师联手以无与伦比的复杂创造食物的时代，从袋装的小吃到米其林星级餐厅里昂贵的大餐。

What I love about durians is that there is no laboratory needed to achieve the depth and range of tastes they offer. It’s one of nature’s masterpieces, dangling tantalizingly in the jungle. Durians, even those harvested from the same branch, can be so nuanced and dissimilar that tasting them is something akin to sampling fine wine.

我最爱榴莲的一点是，你完全用不着一间实验室来获得它的味道所具有的深度和层次。它是大自然的杰作，是飘摇在丛林里的诱惑。榴莲，即使是同一根树枝上的果实，风味于细微处也会千差万别，品味它们的过程如同品鉴顶级红酒。

Bob, one of the foremost experts on the food of Thailand who has written restaurant reviews there for decades, said that durian reminds him of crème brûlée. “It tastes like something that was prepared in a kitchen, not grown on a tree,” he said after sampling a particularly delightful durian.

鲍勃，这位资深的泰国菜专家，写了几十年餐厅评论，说榴莲总让他想起法国的焦糖蛋奶冻。“它吃起来完全像是出自厨房的食物，而不是长在树上的”，他在品尝了一个特别美味的榴莲后说道。

Durian season starts in May and tapers off around November in Thailand, depending on the latitude. But these days orchard owners have managed to coax the fruit from trees year round. They are prized by the Thai elite, who offer gan yao durians, a delectable variety with a long stem, as gifts to business partners or senior government officials. (Yes, a durian bribe.) One fruit can easily sell for $50.

在泰国，榴莲季节从5月开始直到11月，依纬度而变化。现在果农们已经有办法让榴莲能全年收获。榴莲深受泰国精英阶层的青睐，他们喜欢将淦耀(gan yao)榴莲，一个把儿特别长的品种，作为礼品送给商业伙伴或政府高官（没错，用榴莲行贿）。一颗就能轻易卖到50美金。

Durians also grow in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia. In Malaysia the season extends until around the end of the year.

马来西亚、印度尼西亚、菲律宾和东南亚其他一些地方也产榴莲。在马来西亚，（从5月）到年底都是榴莲季。

Bob and I recently traveled to three places around Bangkok to sample durian: a high-end Bangkok fruit market; roadside stalls in Chinatown, where durian lovers can get their fix year round until the wee hours of the steamy Bangkok night; and the durian orchard outside Bangkok, cherished by durian groupies for its more than two dozen varieties and 300 trees.

我和鲍勃最近到曼谷的三个地方去品鉴榴莲：一个高端的曼谷水果市场；中国城的路边摊——在那里，榴莲爱好者们整年都可以过足口瘾，一直吃到曼谷湿热夜晚的凌晨时分；还有曼谷城外的榴莲种植园——那是组团吃榴莲的人的必去之处，有300棵榴莲树和超过24个品种。

“You can Google ‘durian’ and learn a lot,” said Chartree Sowanatrakul, the owner of the orchard. “But when you come here you will go beyond Google.”

“你当然可以通过谷歌来了解‘榴莲’，”果园主人查迪·索旺纳查库(Chartree Sowanatrakul)说道，“但来到这儿，你马上就可以超越谷歌。”

Our quest was to try as many varieties as we could, especially those that are becoming increasingly hard to find with the homogenization of Thai fruit. (Like the production of greenhouse tomatoes in the West, Thailand specializes in breeding fruit for beauty and ease of transport, robbing fruit lovers of variety.)

我们要求尽可能多样化地品尝，尤其是那些因为泰国水果的同质化而变得越来越稀少的品种（正如西方的温室西红柿一样，泰国也开始主要种植卖相好和易于运输的水果，剥夺了水果爱好者们的多种选择）。

Chartree’s six-acre orchard is a two-hour drive from Bangkok in the foothills of the Khorat Plateau, which extends into northeastern Thailand. He served us freshly harvested durian, pineapple and mangosteen, a small round purple fruit with sweet white flesh that many people believe is the perfect complement to durian. The orchard has an unusual genesis. Chartree’s father planted the trees from durian pits he collected in the trash bins of wealthy Bangkok residents in the 1940s, making it a sort of seed bank of varieties that are no longer in commercial production. We were treated to a wonderful variety that Chartree has named nom sot (fresh milk). Other types in the orchard include gop (frog), chanee (a type of monkey) and la ong fa (a Thai sweet).

查迪的果园有六英亩，位于绵延至泰国东北部的呵叻高原的山麓上，从曼谷开车过去要两个小时。他为我们奉上新鲜采摘的榴莲、菠萝和山竹（一种紫色的小个儿圆形水果，白色的果肉吃起来很甜，许多人相信它能与榴莲相媲美）。这个果园有着不寻常的创业史。查迪的父亲在20世纪40年代从曼谷富人区的垃圾箱里搜集果核开始种植，让这个果园成了稀有品类的种子银行，在那里能找到许多在大众批量种植市场根本找不到的品种。查迪用一种他称为Nom Sot（泰语：鲜奶）的榴莲招待我们，果园里的其他品种还包括Gop（泰语：青蛙）、Chanee（泰语：一种猴子的名字）和La ong fa（一种泰国甜品）。

“Old people come here and say the durians here taste just like the durians they had when they were young,” Chartree said.

“许多来这里的老人都说，这儿的榴莲吃起来就像他们年轻时吃过的味道，”查迪说。

Durian is a very social fruit, usually eaten among friends. But I confess that I have sometimes eaten durian alone. Like eating birthday cake by yourself or drinking a tall boy out of a paper bag in a public park, it feels somewhat sad and illicit. Which brings up another point. As any durian fan will tell you, durian and alcohol don’t mix.

榴莲是一种社交型水果，通常是和朋友们一起分享。可是必须承认，我有时独自吃榴莲。就像独自吃生日蛋糕或者在公园从纸袋里掏出大罐儿啤酒一个人喝，感觉有点悲凉。说到这儿我又想起了一个重点，所有的榴莲爱好者们都知道：榴莲与酒是不相容的。

With every durian season come stories about people who have collapsed — or worse — when they’ve had large quantities of durian and alcohol. I have never read or heard of a scientific explanation for this, if there is one. But it is widely recognized that durian season can be deleterious to your health. A few years ago, after a routine physical checkup, I was told by my doctor that my triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood, were above normal. She gave me a pamphlet in which the first piece of advice was to cut down on durian or avoid it altogether.

每个榴莲季节，都有某些人吃了大量榴莲、喝了大量酒之后晕倒甚至更糟的故事。虽然我从来没读过或听说过任何关于这方面的科学解释。但榴莲对个人健康不利是件被公认的常识。几年前我在例行体检后，医生说我的三酸甘油酯（一种血脂）偏高。她给我的小册子上头一条建议就是少吃甚至完全戒掉榴莲。

But many of my fellow durian-loving friends are getting along in age, and it reassures me that, well, they are still alive. There are, after all, much more dangerous foods to consume than durian. Blowfish comes to mind.

即使如此，我的很多榴莲同好们这些年都挺了过来，这一点消除了我的顾虑，呃，至少他们都还活着。世界上有太多比榴莲危险得多的食物——在此我想到了河豚。

After a recent and particularly indulgent durian-eating marathon, when we felt like rolling away instead of walking, Bob quoted William Blake. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”

在结束这程肆无忌惮的榴莲马拉松时，我们感觉自己不是在路上走而是在滚动，鲍勃引用了威廉·布莱克(William Blake)的名句：“超越极致是通向智慧之宫的必由之路。”