The Vegetarian Guy

“The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged.  They nod to me and I to them.” 

“Figs are restorative, and the best food that can be taken by those who are brought low by long sickness…professed wrestlers and champions were in times past fed with figs.”

Pliny the Elder  (A.D. 23-79)

For lunch on the Akrotiri peninsula in Crete, a smattering of flavorful foods would be shared among family at home, or in tavernas and kafenions during frequent “volitas” or jaunts to town.  It would be a welcome culmination to the busy mornings that had to be productive before the sun blazed oppressive noon-time heat, fueled by sirocco winds from the desert in North Africa.  During these “kalokeri” (summer), months lunch always had a fresh tomato and cucumber salad with sweet red onions and sliced fresh feta cheese from sheep or goats residing down the road.  Of course, this was dressed with olive oil from local trees and red wine vinegar from nearby vineyards.  Cretan olives were cured a number of different ways, but my favorite was the method my grand uncle Kyriako would use.  In the storage room behind his house, he would pile olives on a tarp with sea salt harvested from the sun-drenched sea rocks nearby in Stavros.  The tide would wash in every ten days to fill the volcanic pockets with a fresh dose of Mediterranean sea water, conveniently evaporating to provide salt before the next swell.  Kyriako’s olives were tiny, similar in size to Nicoise olives, but salt cured with a wrinkled skin. The size was deceptive because they tasted extraordinary and were very addictive.  Meals were always accompanied by bread, not the white pasty Greek bread often seen at restaurants, but darker crusty loaves worthy of a good soak in the salsa of the salad. The noon-time meal often would have Kaletsounia (page 127), potatoes fried in, and dressed with, extra virgin olive oil (superb!), kolakithia keftedes (zucchini balls), various kinds of horta (boiled greens with lemon and olive oil), melitzana salata (eggplant dip), “fasolia gigandes” (butter beans), hard cheeses and local retsina wine of home made wine from grapes in the Vothono valley nearby.  All of this would be followed by sun sweetened figs, fresh almonds in local thyme honey and “karpusi,” perfectly sweet watermelon from the field down the road. This was the mezzes lunch we would share with family and friends during visits to Crete.  Often lasting for two hours, it was a time to share stories, histories and toasts to friendship.  Although, quantities of food were not always large, we would fill up on exquisite tastes and good company.  Lunch would be followed by a refreshing siesta to prepare for festivities in the evening.  This was mezzes the way it was meant to be: enjoyable, stress-free and vibrant with nourishing foods.  

-Henry David Thoreau

“Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived”

Helen Keller

Aromas enchant us, molding images into the cerebral cortex which can be recalled at any moment with a familiar whiff.  With food, an attractive scent can trigger the desire to eat and cause a singular drive to eat something right away. The sense of smell is seventy percent of taste.  While taste buds receive input from salty, sweet, bitter and pungent receptors, olfactory input can recognize up to 10,000 different aromas.  This input is immediate and can bypass the normal processing to trigger memory in the cerebral cortex.  Imagine having a barbecue without the intensely sensuous aroma not wafting by.  A world without aroma is a sanitized and bland proposition.  Studies have confirmed that the olfactory sense triggers memories more than the other senses.  Mental imagery with the natural romanticized versions, adds immensely to the “theater of dining.”

Just as the chemical combination of food ingredients are medicine, food is also integral in aromatherapy.  To exemplify this, think of the scents that floated out of the kitchen as a child, baking cookies or a cake, baking bread, or the almost acrid aroma of food cooking over an open fire.  There is a sound reason for fast food restaurants to exhaust fumes onto the street.  Over the years, it was very common for passersby to eat at Inn Season Cafe after walking by and smelling the great cooking scents outside our building.

It has been well documented that specific aromas encourage the body to function in different ways.  There are scents which cleanse nasal passages, a few aid digestion and some inspire passion, while others work with the psyche.  Scent is very much part of the “feng shui” of food and old cultures have this built in to the cuisine.  

Setting a stage with scents

Scent is also very subjective. What we like has direct correlation to our life experience and conditioning.  For one person the scent of a wonderfully aged cheese is mouth watering, to another it is revolting.  The audience is important when planning a meal.  Sometimes, we need to help educate a palate, so scents are orchestrated to enhance each other, framing the so called offensive aroma with more accessible and universally appealing scents.  When entertaining, it is good to plan an aromatic environment along with the rest of the menu.  Many times the aromas around the food have a profound effect on the flavors inside the preparations.  

Importance of smells in cooking

Without tasting, the scent of food becomes prominent as a tool for perfection.  In Vedic cooking, enjoying the smells of the food for oneself while cooking is the same as tasting it.  The cooking aroma can be enjoyed as part of the process of cooking for others and certainly may be used as a tool for creating culinary wonders.  

Manipulation of aromas during eating

Timing the drifting scents emanating from food and organizing them in a almost symphonic way  can be as important as combining spices.  Complimentary aromas play off each other, dancing in the imagination, toying with our memories.  

The after dinner scents

After a fulfilling dinner, scent plays an important role in comfort and good digestion.  Some of the unpleasant things restaurants do which we can avoid in our personal lives are spraying tables with window cleaners to sanitize while customers are nearby; using heavy bleach  solutions to sanitize equipment and counters; have strong smelling food being served with delicate flavors; and allowing smoking nearby, or even at all.  

Fortunately in our own homes, we may create environments without these olfactory pitfalls.  To focus on the positive, candles create warm, cozy scents that are nice when extinguished too.  A flaming dessert or steamy hot fudge sauce can fill the are with deep sensual undertones.  Also removing the food from the table is a must before dessert and after the entire dinner when conversation may be heightened.

At Inn Season Cafe, we were always careful to not clash scents.  Employees were not allowed to wear them and we were very sensitive to the tables nearby in our cozy dining room.  One aroma that could come out of the kitchen like a “tsunami”, was the strong scent of toasting chillies when we cooked Indian cuisine. In certain circles it is considered cleansing, in others, an affront to the senses.  In any case, it was part of the life in the food and not to be taken for granted in spite of our best efforts to shield sensitive noses.