Thursday, December 24, 2009

THe Memory of Smells

Certain memories seem to be closely linked with certain smells. Since I’ve been on the road, I’ve had some smell memories that have as vivid as they have been wonderful.
While highway riding, I “remembered” the smell of Iranian Bread. It’s smell is of yeast, wheat, butter and sesame seeds. The classic bread from Iran is circular and is cooked on a flat surface and not in a pan.

This memory links to a memory of bread in Morocco. I was a young teenager and was always hungry. In these overseas countries bread was baked daily and locally. I would walk down to the corner store of my neighborhood and buy a loaf of French bread. I’d also buy some La Vache Que Rie (the laughing cow) cheese. Then, I’d go through the ritual of splitting the bread open and putting the cheese in. The smell from the warm bread would fill me. The texture was beautiful, with the crunch exterior, spongy inner bread and creamy soft and cool cheese. On some occasions I would put jam in with the cheese.

4 comments:

  1. Jamal, I'm fially checking in. Look forward to following along with you.
    Ed Parsons

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  2. I also do remember those days when my family and I would go to Algeria for the summers and how women at home would bake fresh bread every morning. I
    used to eat it with Nutella the hazelnut chocolate spread or la vache qui rit too:)

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  3. I also do remember those days when my family and I would go to Algeria for the summers and how women at home would bake fresh bread every morning. I
    used to eat it with Nutella the hazelnut chocolate spread or la vache qui rit too:)

    Forgot to sign my name!

    ReplyDelete