The smell is worse than the taste, which is not bad actually. And seems to me that the opened edible portion is not as smelly as the whole fruit. I'm not to the point of being a durian lover, however.

The smell is pretty much gone if eaten in ice cream or pudding.

The whole fruit, frozen, can also be found in the Bay Area at some of the Asian supermarkets such as Ranch 99. There is no discernible smell from the frozen fruit. I haven't bought any frozen ones (as I tell my wife, why buy frozen when I could eat fresh in Singapore... where they grade them...if I wanted), but have been told that the fruit may be mushy upon defrosting.

I've often waited for my wife near durian in fruitstands in SF Chinatown and have heard tourists guess it was pineapple, coconut, etc., anything but durian, or its other name, King of Fruits.