BANGI, Malaysia—With its thick husk and sharp spikes, the durian doesn’t look like other fruits. Nor does it taste much like anything else. “There are occasional wafts of flavor that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes,” was how British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace described it in 1856.

Then there is the smell, which has been likened to rotting onions, gym socks or raw sewage. The fruit is banned from hotels, airplanes and public transport across Southeast Asia. In Melbourne,...