PG thought this might contribute to a useful writing prompt.
From The Wall Street Journal:
RARELY do we go rummaging through our brain’s olfactory files for reminders of an impressive vacation. But this is a great time to give a workout to what chef Marcus Samuelsson calls our “smell muscle,” using our sense of smell to experience more of the world. You’re sure to get your heart pumping.
Emerging from the cocoon we were unceremoniously stuffed into a year ago, many of us are starting to dream of returning to a favorite place—a beloved getaway spot that has been frustratingly off-limits for the past 14 months. While photos or particularly vivid TV shows might conjure the image of those out-of-reach destinations, they can’t reproduce the feeling of being there. “When we smell things we are directly experiencing little bits of that place, the materials that make up that place,” said author Harold McGee, whose most recent book, “Nose Dive: A Field Guide To The World’s Smells,” came out in the fall. The aroma of the place is perhaps the only experience we can’t transport as a souvenir.
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Not that it hasn’t been tried. Versions of Smell-O-Vision or Scentovision, a system that transmits smells during films or television shows, first wafted onto the scene in the 1960s after Swiss scientist Hans Laube introduced it in 1939 at the World’s Fair. “It didn’t work,” said Mr. McGee, but hold tight for another decade or so and we’ll be able to visit India and share the smell experience when we return home, he predicted. Until then, we asked Mr. McGee as well as six other professionals for whom scent plays an important role to share the aromas that evoke their strongest memories of places they’re eager to sniff once again.
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Harold McGee
Author, food scientist
“I live in San Francisco and we’ll often go on a driving trip up the coast to Mendocino. I smell the ocean and the redwoods. The redwood forests have a particular smell—moist, evergreen, woody,” said Mr. McGee, adding that the bark on the massive trees tends to be flaky, which may contribute to the aroma. Other indelible scent memories are less agreeable. “I love visiting New York, Paris and London. I think of the smell of the subways,” said Mr. McGee. “In Paris, the subways have rubber wheels, and that may be what gives it its distinct smell. The London subways are deep underground. You feel the stifle of air. In New York, walking along the streets you pass the subway grates, you smell the subway more than the street. Not always pleasant.”
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Marcus Samuelsson
Chef and owner of Red Rooster and Marcus restaurants
“Pre-pandemic I’d take my son to Ethiopia. We’d visit the markets in Addis Ababa,” said Mr. Samuelsson, who was born in Ethiopia. “There’s a sound in the markets, and there’s a smell….of spices, of berbere [a traditional blend of chile peppers, coriander, ginger, garlic, basil, among other spices]. In Sweden, where I grew up in a fishing village, you can smell the ocean for miles and the fish in the smokehouses. In late summer to early fall I’d go foraging with my uncles. Going into the woods and pulling up lingonberries, blueberries, mushrooms—these memories for me are all about smell.”
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Denise Porcaro
Floral designer and owner of New York City’s Flower Girl
“Whenever I think of Europe I think of the lemon trees and orange blossoms,” said Ms. Porcaro. “Driving along the Amalfi coast the smell is citrusy, soft and powdery.” The fragrance is reminiscent not only of a place for her, she said, but a time: summer.
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal (PG apologizes for the paywall, but hasn’t figured out a way around it.)