中國吃貨瘋狂砸錢東南亞，買的東西讓外媒很不解範例
High up in the lush green mountains of Raub, you can smell them before you see them. The pungent waft 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.
在勞勿茂密的綠色山地，你在目睹這些東西之前就能先聞到它們的味道。那種刺鼻的氣味在晨風中迅速傳播，你肯定不會聞錯：馬來西亞的這一帶是種榴蓮的。
Called the “king of fruits” by 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, durian’s overpowering smell – fragrant to some noses, putrid to others – has led it to be banned from hotels and public transport across Asia, and has even prompted evacuations from airports and hospitals.
這種水果被十九世紀的英國博物學家Alfred Russel Wallace稱爲“水果之王”。榴蓮這種強烈的氣息對一些人來說是香甜，對另一些人來說則是惡臭，這讓它在亞洲很多國家的交通工具和酒店裏都被禁止攜帶，甚至曾經在機場和醫院引發全員疏散的後果。
However, in China something of a cultish national obsession with durian has grown in the past few years, particularly around the Musang King variety, grown almost entirely in Malaysia.
不過，這些年中國人對榴蓮發展出一種邪教般的迷戀，他們尤其喜歡貓山王榴蓮的各種品種，而這種榴蓮幾乎只長在馬來西亞。
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.
而中國人的喜歡吃什麼，什麼就賺錢。在勞勿的高地，以及在東南亞的各個國家，農民和地主們把以前那些用來產橡膠和棕櫚油的作物都給剷掉了，轉而種這種看着像變異體的本地水果。
“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專門寫了一本關於這種水果的書，並且在亞洲運營着榴蓮之旅的活動，她說：“我剛開始做這些的時候，人們都跟我說榴蓮不賺錢，但現在看來顯然不是這麼一回事。”
“I treat durian like a wine because it is like a wine – it is a living organism that changes and ferments over its lifespan, so you can really do a lot with the flavour. I think that’s what makes people so obsessive over it.”
“我像對待葡萄酒一樣對待榴蓮，因爲它確實就像葡萄酒，它是一種一生都在變化、發酵的生命體，你能在它的味道上做出很多門道來。我想這就是爲何人們那麼迷戀它。”
Durian’s distinctive smell is infamous, 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.
榴蓮的氣味可以說是臭名昭著，而它的味道得到的評價也兩極分化，雖然其中有一部分香甜可口的感覺。Wallace曾經將其形容爲“充滿杏仁味的醇厚奶凍”，有人說它像牛油糖布丁或者冰激凌，但也有人說它像腳臭或者臭雞蛋。
