Food & Fragrance: 176 posts

I am spending a summer afternoon at my grandmother’s in my favorite manner–stretched out on the grass, reading a book. Absentmindedly, my eyes glued to the page, I pick a small flower from a patch in front of me and bring it to my nose. In that instant, I forget about the book, and the only thing capturing my attention is the poignantly familiar aroma of chamomile, of bitter honey and green apple.

The reason chamomile, a simple, ubiquitous flower, puts me under its spell so quickly is that the herb used to be a favorite cure-all remedy in our household during my childhood. It was used in tisanes to help me sleep, lotions to soothe rashes or hair rinses. It’s the smell of summer in the countryside, and when my great-grandmother was alive, at this time of summer we picked baskets of chamomile and dried them in the shade. These days we don’t bother anymore, and my grandmother is happy just to buy the ready-made chamomile teas from the pharmacy. But since I have nothing but time and plenty of chamomile around me, I find an old wicker basket and gather a few handfuls of flowers. Spread out in a thin layer, they look like a polka dot extravaganza, and the scent intensified by the sun is unexpectedly lush.

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Andy explores how freezing changes our perception of flavor and tempts us with mango paletas.

When hot weather strikes, some dream of heading to cooler climes, but my strategy for beating the heat takes a note from the fiery summers of Mexico—where the cuisine opposes the weather with an array of frozen treats. In Mexico, ice pops, called paletas, are made using whole fresh fruit and interesting spices, with flavors including tamarind, jamaica (hibiscus), and fresh strawberry, melon, passionfruit, or other fresh fruits. Many towns are lucky enough to have their own family-owned paleterias that sell a variety each day. Taking a note from these shops, I stock a selection in the freezer, since making your own paletas at home is incredibly easy and allows you to experiment with whatever seasonal fruits and flavors you enjoy.

Paletas are among the easiest of frozen sweets to make, but they are both incredibly addictive and gratifying. The inclusion of large amounts of fresh fruit certainly help make them tempting, but I’m convinced that part of the appeal lies in the exciting way we experience flavors when our food is frozen. Often when we eat, we receive cues about the flavor we are about to experience through the smell of the food, before we even put the first morsel in our mouths.

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Among the many things that perfumery and cuisine have in common is their ability to take you back into the past. A whiff, a taste, and you’re in another time and place. My Proustian madeleine was a  green salad my grandmother put together when we suddenly discovered that our lettuce patch was about to be overgrown. Since wasting food is a cardinal sin in our household, I was sent to pick the lettuce and herbs, while my grandmother boiled eggs and whipped a simple sour cream dressing. The combination of dill’s spicy licorice, tart cream and slightly bitter greens was refreshing, but it also reminded me of my childhood so poignantly that for a while I sat with my fork mid-motion.

Among my grandmother’s large repertoire, salads never played a big role. Depending on the season, we always had a large plate of fresh vegetables on the table–cucumbers sprinkled with salt, sliced tomatoes, radishes or spring onions, but the salad was hardly more than slivered cabbage tossed with parsley, dill and toasted sunflower seed oil. Green salad wasn’t even considered food fit for humans, and I vividly recall my great-grandmother pointing to a pile of lettuce and saying that only during the famine of the 1930s would she eat that “green nonsense.”

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Let it be spring! Nowruz, or “new day” in Persian, falls on the spring equinox and is celebrated for the thirteen following days. This year it fell on March 20th, and now we’re in the Persian year of 1393. While Nowruz is a major festival in Iran, the holiday is also celebrated in other countries, where ancient Persian culture left its mark, such as Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Albania, India, and Turkey. The festivities came into our family with my Azeri stepmother, and along with Easter, Nowruz is one of my favorite holidays for its rich symbolism of renewal and hope. It’s also a reminder that winter’s grasp is weakening and that warm days are around the corner.

In every home, the centerpiece of Nowruz celebrations would be a table decorated with seven items, haftseen or the seven S’s. Seven is considered a lucky number, and each item on the table beginning with the letter seen (s) in Persian has its unique meaning. For instance, seeb (apple) represents beauty, seer (garlic)–good health, serkeh (vinegar)–patience, and sekeh (coins)–prosperity. The arrangement is ornate and colorful, and people make rounds admiring each other’s haftseen tables, sharing good wishes and delicious food.

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Jasmine tea is one of the most ubiquitous flavored teas, but finding a high-quality blend takes some research. Andy describes how jasmine tea is made and also how to buy a truly artisanal product.

The immense variety of gourmand perfumes make smelling good enough to eat a simple task. Between the chocolate-torte richness of Angel, the strawberry cotton candy of Pink Sugar, or the licorice and violet pastilles of Lolita Lempicka, the possibilities make for an endless dessert case of choices. But when I want to smell good enough to drink, I sometimes find myself at a loss. Instead, I brew myself a cup of jasmine tea, and I quickly forget my fragrant dilemma.

While drinking a cup of jasmine tea, the lines between food and fragrance quickly blur. As soon as the aroma of soft white petals and sweet, toasted leaves begins to fill the air, I’m left almost unsure whether I’d rather dab the tea on my skin or take a sip. In few other cases is the humble task of brewing a cup of tea elevated to this level of almost magical sensory indulgence. And perhaps the most blissful part of it all is the fact that enjoying jasmine tea can be a daily ritual, not just an experience for special occasions.

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