On Being Odoriferous
I love scents. Lots of natural scents. I have candles and incense sticks. I have an oil burner and a diffuser. I open my door when I come home at night and I smell 'home'.
This bowl sits near my front door and the Buddha's hand gives out the most beautiful light lemony scent. If I want to enhance the intensity, I just squeeze one of the fingers. It lasts a couple of weeks and truly is one of the best natural room fresheners you can find.
Another one I just adore is the white ginger lily
which has a very course foliage, big thick stalks and tough leaves, but an incredibly beautiful light aroma. A big bunch of these (10 or more) in a vase is just the most wonderful delight to the olfactory senses.
It's amazing the power a scent can have on us....bringing back specific memories from years gone by. Some good, some bad. These days, I often find myself sitting with my eyes closed, breathing in deeply and remembering the scent of my love's neck. Not a cologne, but his own natural scent. Wow.
We have a couple of unpleasant scents here (well more than a couple) but there are two in particular that I actually enjoy - I think you have to have grown up with them: durian and 'chau dau fu' (stinky bean curd).
Durian is a tropical fruit
I think from the jackfruit family and is so pungent that it's forbidden on aircraft and in hotel rooms!! Some people say it smells like vomit and yes, many people pinch their noses as they put it in their mouth, but it's so delicious!
My favourite Hong Kong smell has to be the wonderful fermented bean curd, the 'stinky tofu', which really does have a pretty powerful odour.
It's so yummy. Cubes are deep fried to give a crispy shell inside which is a creamy delicious curd. A few of those dipped in chili sauce is heaven!
While I wouldn't want either of the last two as room scents, I do love to catch the odd waft of them. Chau dau fu is becoming increasingly rare here, unfortunately.
And right now I'm going to spend a few minutes with my eyes closed, remembering the scent of a particular man's neck.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
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4 comments:
That fried stinky tofu sounds yummy.
I want one of those buddha's hand things. Where can I get one? How long do they keep?
(By the way, your word verification is being bitchy - the image doesn't always appear.)
Hmmmmm, food again!
such a wonderful post, so many scents in our lives...I am known for my 'nose' and I can have only one scent on one floor, or I tend to get a tad bitchy it seems, I can only deal well with real floral scents...which I may soon get to enjoy again...as my pansy orchid seems ready to bloom again *VBS*....but citrus scents are my favorite...that and eucalyptus.
Hi Anna - it IS delicious!!! and I hear you about the verification, it was doing that to me the other day.
I get my buddha's hands in the local gourmet deli - but they are also to be found in the local market. Hmmmmm maybe you'll need to find a chinatown with fresh produce? I got back to mine being moldy and it STILL smelled good.
You know me Ian - food food food ;)
aaah Sunny....I do love citrus too, and yes, it all has to be natural, nothing worse than chemically enhanced scents!
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