Hue, Vietnam, September 2011. Runbikerun and Ladyrunbikerun are strolling in the early morning from pagoda to pagoda, and beginning to really feel the 35-centigrade heat and near 100% humidity. They drink their water, then buy more water, then drunk that water, and still the sweat continues to roll off them unabated. They find a shop a long way off the beaten track, but no drinks are for sale - just a freezer filled with ice cream pops in green wrappers. Runbikerun takes one and pays the shopkeeper, who speaks no English and cannot warn him of the nightmare to come. Our two intrepid adventurers sally forth once more, unwrapping their ice creams as they walk. Runbikerun bites in, expecting the cool tastiness of citrus fruits (as is the custom with green ice cream wrappers), but instead gets something else.
Imagine the smell of particularly pungent cheese, left to overripen for two weeks. Imagine the smell of shellfish caught a month ago. Imagine them both inside a fridge that's been broken for a week. In the middle of a heatwave. Durian ice cream is all of these things.
Runbikerun does not finish his ice cream.