Nobody Nose You Like I Nose You

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

I had sinus surgery 10 days ago.  It went well—it always does—but I lost my sense of smell.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but in fact, in recent years the packing they have to put in your nose at the end of the surgery has gotten so minimal that I usually quickly recover my sense of smell.  I think perhaps the surgery was more extensive, or happened to cover more of the sense of smell territory (how does that work?).

But whatever the reason, I found that the lovely cool autumn air came through my nose scent-free.  A couple of days after the surgery, I noticed that the spray bottle containing one part vinegar to four parts water (plus a little lemon juice) that we use for cleaning everything, from sinks to countertops to apples, was low.  However, we heard that there was some use of animals in the filtering process of making white distilled vinegar, so I thought, why not use apple cider vinegar which I knew did not use animals?

I poured a bunch of apple cider vinegar into the spray bottle, and merrily cleaned our kitchen countertops.  Once I even put my nose close to the counter top to see if I could smell if it was too strong.  But only the faintest whiff of vinegar came to me, so I cleaned everything.  When M came home, she practically choked on the fumes!

How does this relate to food?  Well, the day after my surgery my father told me he would cook me whenever I wanted for dinner, and there was really no question.  My favorite dish in the whole wide world is my father’s potato and pea curry with home-made chapatis on the side.  The funny thing was I couldn’t smell the dish at all, which made it fascinating to have the textures and the heat of the curry in my mouth.  Also, usually when my nose is stuffed up and I can’t smell I’m not hungry, either, but now I was stuffing my face with the potato and pea curry.  I’ve put the recipe below, in case anyone else turns out to love it as much as I do.

I know this is a long entry, but the slow and gentle increase over the week in my ability to smell and taste what I was eating has been like the pleasure of the autumn trees changing.  You notice that little Japanese maple starting to glow red, and then another tree, and then another, but it seems like they’ll never all go, and then one day you look out your window and there are fireworks.

P.S. “Nobody nose you like I nose you” is what my brother wrote on a card for me for my first sinus surgery in 1988 when I was 14!

Potato & Pea Curry (the Indian name is Aloo Matar)

3 TB veg oil
1 med onion, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp cayenne (Dad uses less)
1 tsp ginger (grated or sliced)
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cardomom
pinch of ground clove
2 TB tom paste (4 TBs=1/2 can)
1/2 cup boiling water (just reserve it from spud water, below)
3 med potatoes, quartered, cooked
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup yogurt (opt.)

Fry onion in veg oil ‘til transparent.  Add all spices, med fire, 2 min.  Put in tom paste and spud water.  Stir in spuds, peas, salt.  (If using white basmati rice, put it on now for 14 min.) Leave spuds on LOW, 15 minutes until rice is done.  Mix in yogurt or leave it out if you’d rather.