Nothing is more memorable than smell

"Nothing is more memorable than a smell.  One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town.  Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years.  Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once.  A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth."  ~Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses.

For me , entering a restaurant is not just a meal occasion, it's a sensual ritual for exciting all my senses, then my nerve buds, up to my neurons , then encrypting this stimulation into my memory storage area.
And if this ritual didn't happen, then the restaurant failed in making me a memory.
And if it failed in making this memory, this simply means : " the food wasn't great". And, although I am a food scientist ,  where one would assume that would be easy  for me talking about a restaurant , its menu and its food. But it is not. Because I tend to talk about almost all the factors that affect eating.  You will notice that as you read below.


The couqley bistro- restaurant  experience for brunch, was one of those vivid memories that had successfully been processed and stored. As you enter, you are overwhelmed with the smell of home  made omlettes and pancakes, and so you  evocatively remember the Sunday mornings where you used to wake up late , smell something delicious and enter the kitchen to see  your mother preparing for you,  your favorite breakfast: Pancakes.  Bringing back  this picture is worth it all. 

10 misconceptions about Hunger

Can  Food Aids solve Hunger crises ?  

Or is Free Trade the solution? What  about the green  Revolution ??

Hunger , just like any topic also has its myths, and its controversies.
But these "myths" are leading to social, economical instabilities  problems in the world we live in.  The drought hitting the horn of Africa is not merely  a natural uncontrollable force , it has  lead to famine , man's very own act .
 2.4 million people in five countries across the horn of Africa are affected, and Tens of thousands of people have already died from starvation, half of whom are children – and malnutrition rates in some regions are worse than anything previously recorded.

World Food Program  through its millenium goals aims   to end povertyby 2015. NGO's , local or international, are all collaborating to mitigate this crisis. As well, on the field volutneers , online volunteers, journalists , bloggers are all working worldwide together  too.But more efforts are needed. And to have more efforts,  we need more awareness. This post is nothing but to raise awareness about the general public views  towards hunger, the responsible people behind its cause and  the authorities actively participating in eliminating it.

Based on the book World Hunger: Twelve Myths  and  below  notes is taken from ( summarized) : Food First, Institute for Food and Development Policy. 

Myth 1: Not Enough Food to Go Around

tree hugger.com

Reality:
Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply. Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,200 calories a day. That doesn't even count many other commonly eaten foods - ­vegetables, beans, nuts, root crops, fruits, grass-fed meats, and fish. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per person a day worldwide: two and half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound of meat, milk and eggs - ­enough to make most people fat! The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food. Even most "hungry countries" have enough food for all their people right now. Many are net exporters of food and other agricultural products.

This is  the section of  "The Baking Power of the Poet"

What does Poetry have to do with a Food blog?


 Let me reply with what Joyce Carol Oates, the noble peace prize winner in Literature, who quotes that
"If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?”! 


So,  Isn't poetry  after all, the food of the soul??  She also adds : "When poets write about food it is usually celebratory. Food as the thing-in-itself, but also the thoughtful preparation of meals, the serving of meals, meals communally shared: a sense of the sacred in the profane.”

What Oates claims is the reason why poetry should me a must for  a food lover like me and thus add this section to my blog!


I hope you will enjoy some of the poems below , either from other poets or written by me ...