Year 2, Day 11: The Greatest Smell in the World

You may argue that it's popcorn at a movie theatre, or coffee at a coffee shop, or fresh baked goods at a bakery, and those are all powerful, aromatic stimulants that can make you glad to be alive. But today on a Domania walk (with just one other) I caught my absolute and sentimental favorite, which is french fries in the 'just a bit like summer' warm air. I don't know why, but it was a smell, you might say Proustian, that takes me back, not to some specific event, but to something universally appealing about being a child. Possibly the map to the brain's synapse that says "we're going to eat french fries." The conflated memory of a thousand carnivals, hot dog stands, beach huts. The smell of your food—french fries—being ready. It was hypnotic, and just at the beginning of my walk, it carried me all the way around the river, and perhaps, through some windy cavern of my mind, much farther.

Breakfast
2 Slices Iggy's Whole Wheat Sour Dough Bread
4 slices ham
3 oz. 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
Tea

Snack
12 oz. coffee (half decaf)
60 Pistachios
A handful of Cashews

Lunch: Leftovers
Emily's Lettuce Wrraps/Ground Turkey
Cold Thai Cabbage Stir Fry

Dinner
2 Glasses Yellow Tail Cabernet/Merlot
Mahi-Mahi
Asparagus

Dessert!
6 Squares, Burdick's Dark Chocolate

First, I must tell you about the disappointing bread product from Iggy's. Mostly, their bagels and white breads are FANTASTIC, but this whole wheat bread was just a sorrowful come down from the enthusiastic joy that is Balthazar. It gives a deeply grieving sensation that Balthazar is made with crack cocaine, molasses, or possibly 'ether of wood rosin' (LIKE FRESCA) or something that I shouldn't be eating. It's that good.

Update on Russo's: I spoke to Phil de Parma (that can't be his real name, but that's what they told me). He apologized for the lack of chicken saying the staff had been 'crushed by a lot of other business.' Though this is hardly a satisfying, or some would say credible excuse, I accepted it when he told me I could go to "Carlos" his right-hand chicken man should I note an empty tray. Reports from the field today indicate the chicken issue has been resolved. I thought you'd like to know.