Today is National Fragrance Day. I get that the way most people are celebrating National Fragrance Day is to share their favourite perfumes – and really it is just an excuse to bully your nearest and dearest into buying you something smelly. A wonderful promotional celebration…
But I thought I would do something a bit different with it. #ScentMemories is this years focus – and what scents have stronger memoires than foodie smells? For foodie people anyhows … So I asked some self confessed #foodies to share their favorite food based scents for National Fragrance Day; and here’s what they came up with!
Sarah / www.thesarahstory.com
There is nothing quite like the smell of freshly ground coffee. When you walk into the kitchen, the smell teases you into getting yourself geared up for other day. It can improve a sour mood and can lure you into believing you are more awake than you may be.
To accompany the smell of coffee is the smell of something baking in the oven. In the morning, most people crave the smell of fresh bread with bacon, but I hope for cake or a brownie first thing in the day. It really is the perfect start to any wonderful day.
Sarah / www.fromplatetopen.com
I remember the first time I smelt bread baking. We were making twisted french bread in primary school and I found the process fascinating. I was a highly strung kid, but found the bread making extremely relaxing. I adore the smell of bread – homely and comforting.
Jools
www.yetanotherunfinishedproject.wordpress.com
There are so many amazing foodie smells I could probably write all day about my favourite smells and why they are so great. There are a few that just manage to top the rest because they featured so heavily in my life.
When I was pregnant with my son I became so obsessed by the scent of roses that he was lucky to be born a boy – a girl child would definitely have had to be named Rose. I sought out any and all rose scented foods because they managed to be a little oasis of calm in an otherwise fraught pregnancy. Rose petal tea is now one of my favourite calming brews and rose syrup has become a favourite addition to a lot of the desserts I make! The smell of rose has become so entwined with my efforts to be calm that the smell now just totally chills me out.
Another of my favourite foodie scents is the smell of fresh tomatoes. Now I’m not talking about the pathetic excuses for tomatoes that you generally find in the shop. I’m talking about the totally in your face smell of a tomato plant that has been sitting in the sun. My poor mum always did her best to grow cherry tomatoes on the windowsill of our house. It was a perfect spot on a south facing bay window and the smell of the plants was amazing. Actually she did a great job at growing them, it was just unfortunate that all her children loved tomatoes and harvested any fruit that looked like they were just about ripe. Fresh, warm tomatoes right off the plant are one of my favourite things to eat and the smell just takes me back to being a cheeky youngster determined to foil all my mum’s attempts at growing tomatoes for herself!
There are so many more smells that I love, just because I know that I’m in for a treat. I could wax lyrical about the smells of freshly ground coffee, good quality chocolate and frying onions. Controversially I’m quite partial to the smell of some stinky cheeses because I know they are going to taste amazing! I do emphasise the some in that last sentence though because I’ve come across a few stinky cheeses that require a bit of nose holding before I could stomach them. It’s always a bit strange to find something that smells so bad but tastes so good!
Me – Laura
I have a wierd one for you – but it’s completely memory centric, and the dish itself is pretty yummy of course. My very favourite food based smell is the Turkey Curry my Dad has made EVERY YEAR for my entire life with the remaining Christmas turkey. It’s a pretty basic curry from an ancient Marks and Spark’s cook book; with plenty of curry powder and little else. But it’s a recipe that has been photocopied and remains on my fridge to this day. I make it whenever I am feeling down and even the initial smell of the curry powder in the pan gives me the warm fuzzies. Lifting me, comforting me, and reminding me of why I’ll always be blessed in life. My warm loving family home ( whereever they may have moved to! ) that I will always be welcomed into – no matter what’s happening!
Aside from turkey curry, I’m pretty easily impressed when it comes to food scents. I have eaten soooo many wonderful meals that if I stop and think about almost any scent I can be transported to somewhere else. My favourite food smells are almost always circumstancial. I love them all ♥
Onions caramilising – that’s another one – and balsamic vinegar… Oh and buttery toast. How about wild garlic; when it is still out in the wild ♥ We could go on forever couldn’t we!
I’d love to hear about your favourite aromas of the foodie kind. Memory-based or otherwise!
