by No-Nose-Musette

First, I want to thank all of you who offered remedies, doctors, possible reasons, etc for my anosmic, tasteless self.  I am still somewhat taste-free (okay! you in the back row!  stop snickering!)….and smells are limited to what my soft palate can translate.  I’ve mostly given up on chocolate for the time being – it’s just too ridiculous.  I can smell  parts of most perfumes these days, just not in the nuanced fashion I would prefer (for example, L’Heure Fougueuse smells like straight green hay all the way through which, for that price point, is a Total Fail.  So back in the drawer for you, li’l filly! )  Rose is coming through loud and clear – but it’s making me nauseous unless it’s cut with something smoky.  If I weren’t so damn old (and El O so damn snipped) I would suspect pregnancy.  Luckily that is not possible, unless Gabriel came down and left a note that fell off the desk or something….if you see 3 guys on camels heading towards my house, could you ask them to make sure the frankincense and myrrh are perfume-grade?  Thanks!

But enough about my ailin’ self.  Let’s talk about collection.  Since I cannot smell or taste much these days I have been amusing myself with reorganizing my perfume armoire …and reading more of Diane Ackerman’s The Zookeeper’s Wife.  In one chapter, she writes of the zookeepers saving the collection of the noted entomologist/collector Szymon Tenenbaum – read this intriguing paragraph:

An insect collection is a silent oasis in the noisy clamor of the world, isolating phenomena so that they can be seen undistractedly.  In that sense, what is being collected are not the bugs themselves but the deep attention of the collector……”collection” is a good word for what happens, because one becomes collected for a spell, gathering up one’s curiosity the way rainwater collects.

I thought that was  just so…lyrical.  And it holds true for any type of beloved collection, I think. though perhaps edible/wearable collections are a bit different.  I see my collection of perfumes as a living thing, mostly to be used.  But it isn’t always thus.  Sometimes I get caught up in the collection itself, rather than the parts.  I ogle the Cartier jewel-tone boxes that house Mme Laurent’s exquisite creations, the matte black boxes from Malle…the variations of elegance that is Dior and Chanel…and it’s time like that that I wonder if I’m in love with perfume or the collecting of perfume.  This isn’t a judgement call, btw – I think there is room for any number of reasons why folks collect.  But reading that paragraph made me wonder about why people collect – and what they do with their collections.  My own perfume collection is modest by some measures, extravagant by others – and the reasons range from love of a certain fragrance or House, spanning eras, to the educational, which I reference-spritz so I can yark about it here but would never wear as mine own.  And sometimes, like an insect collector, well…..sometimes I get an endorphin rush just cataloguing and organizing all the bottles and decants and samples.  Reorganizing haphazardly placed decants and figuring out the best way to catalogue and store little 1ml samples so I can find them easily (each system is carefully thought out  but like any interactive system, is reliant upon the vagaries of human nature.  I am a medfly.  Today’s system has no defense against tomorrow’s ADD)…it’s very calming to lay out a bunch of decants on a towel and, once again, try to figure out the most efficient way to organize them – should they go with their FullBottle brethren or should they repose in the ammo box section……at that point the fragrances themselves are meaningless; it’s all about the collection.

So how do you look at your collection?  It doesn’t have to be a huge one, btw.  If you have 2 bottles and a handful of samples, you have a collection.  But what gives you the endorphin rush or the zen place?  Do you get jazzed about the organization?  Or could you not care less – it’s all about the juice and you don’t care if 31RC is laying up against that bottle of Angel.  Or do you, like me, dance back and forth between those two?  Or someplace entirely different?

visual: en.wikipedia.org

excerpt from:  The Zookeeper’s Wife – A War Story, by Diane Ackerman

By Musette the Insensate

I’m reading Diane Ackerman’s “The Zookeeper’s Wife”, a story based on the actions of Antonina and Jan Zabin’ski who managed to save over 300 otherwise doomed people during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.   Reading Diane Ackerman always heightens my senses – she writes like I think, with little bits and pieces of pertinent (and some maybe not-so pertinent) information flying around the core nugget of information ….anyway, I like her writing a lot (trying to stay on track here, darlings, hangin’ by a thread…).  One of the terrifying things written about in The Zookeeper’s Wife is how quickly we adapt to whatever ‘reality’ confronts us.  One minute one is worrying about which dress to wear to a concert and the next, one is grateful to be sleeping on a mattress wedged in a doorframe, possibly allowing you to shelter your small child from shrapnel.   I, and a lot of others, call these adjustments New Normals.

So why am I yarking on about this?  Well, my New Normal isn’t anywhere near as dread and dire as it was for the citizenry of 1941 Warsaw but it’s my current New Normal.  I have lost a good 60% of my sense of taste and about 40% of my already-iffy sense of smell.

It’s bizarre, watching myself adjust to this.  I’m not really worried about it, as I think it’s a combination of an ongoing respiratory situation (involving all aspects of respiration, including a stubborn spot of pneumonia (my 14th occurrence, still some gurgling in the lungs) and  4 years of unrelenting stress, which has settled in my neck and shoulders.   The resulting ‘blockage combo’ has short circuited a lot of smell/taste receptors.  Weird disconnects:  I can taste some HFC but not sugar; El O just heated up some roast chicken, which I could smell from 3 rooms away and I drifted towards it, salivating, like one of Pavlov’s pups, only to find it nearly tasteless in my mouth.  Dang.   Not surprising, the inability to taste certain things  has dissuaded me from eating a whole lot of stuff (salty is okay, sweet is iffy, spicy is altered, much to the terror of my household as they taste a curry that seems ‘mild’ to me yet, apparently, could fuel the Hubble to another planet)…but…well ….obviously I haven’t completely stopped eating , since I’m still a solid size 12 and able to type this post without keeling over in a dead faint.  But the lack of taste and smell has created a New Normal for me, while I try to get this fixed.

What Doesn’t Work: The Food Chronicles:

Dough.  At this rate I should be a size 8 by March 22nd.  I can’t taste any bread or pasta. Weird. The hottest curries or sauces are muted by the bland dough.  Rice?  Fuggedaboutit.  I can taste toasted tortillas but that’s not really true – I can taste the little crispy bits but not the sweetness of the corn.

Sweet:  see above.  No point in eating brownies or cake.  They taste like flour.   My last waffle was this morning.  What a waste of good maple syrup (which I also can’t taste)

Salty:  salty is good – but only for a few minutes.  Then, like the ionones in violets (which we’ve discussed here before) the salt vanishes..then reappears (maybe)….then vanishes.. I gave up on potato chips – it’s not worth the calories.

Salty/fatty:  this is a weird one.  Salted almonds:  can taste them in the back left quadrant of my tongue but only fleetingly.    The rest of my tongue is a wasteland.  This gets boring, quickly, as you can imagine.  I’m using them for the protein and fibre.

So the New Normal for me consists of orange juice, which I can taste, toast with peanut butter and Thai Green Curry (not together!).   And peppermint tea.

Has this happened to any of you?  How did you cope?  Did you lose weight?  If I’m going to be tortured like this, I would at least like to re-fit into those slammo black suede pants.

Perfume choices have had to change as well.  I’m limited to extremes.  Carnal Flower is UP! as is Amouage Epic.  Chanel Coco, No5 perfume and vintage My Sin make their presence  known.  1/20th of what I normally get in vintage Ubar . Other than that, I’m mostly confused.  All the Diors are null -  Diorella languishes in the back of the drawer as I can only smell something vaguely pond-y that I never smelled before.  Are you all sitting down?  Good.  I CAN’T SMELL MITSOUKO!   I KNOW!!!  Alert the media!  Just joshin’.  I mean, I can smell it – but it’s a pale reflection of its normal glorious self, with all sorts of notes awol.

So I’m looking to you guys for some guidance – I’ve given you the basics of my smell limitations.  What would you suggest for my New Normal, as I try to adjust to these limitations?  I am open to any notes.  Bring ‘em!   With any luck this will dissipate but in the meantime I am going to have to change what I sniff,  lest you get a few weeks worth of book reviews or stories about my dogs.  So, a little help here?  Thanks!

image:  Gerhard Richter “Mirror Painting (Grey, 735-2) tate.org.uk  – this is how my olfactory world feels right now.

The ionones reference comes from Diane Ackerman’s vaunted A Natural History of the Senses which was my introduction to her work.

Whew!  2011 is nearly over and I still don’t have my Escape limo and I have NO idea where Woody Harrelson is right now.   Better hustle!!!  But – we still have a few days so let’s take a look back at the  best/worst/most intriguing of 2011.  Most of this will be perfume, as it is The Perfume Posse, not Anita’s Playpen…but save room for a couple of weird inclusions, just because I Am In That Kinda Mood.  We are also not limiting this list (or your comments) to stuff brought forth in 2011 – rather, we’re interested in what piqued your interest this past year – some may have transported you with delight, some might’ve brought up your lunch!  Ya nebber know.

So, without further ado, here’s what grabbed us in 2011.

Anita’s picks:

Cartier les Heurres Fougueuse.  I fell in love with this the moment I sniffed it.  Then, inexplicably, I fell OUT of love with it – I think I got scared.  Then I just…gave in.  And swooned as over the course of the year it wrapped its honeyed, monied silken tendrils of sun-kissed hay around my soul….sigh.  Oh, Mathilde…..every time I wear this my step lightens just a little.. Liz Zorn Centennial.  This is an offshoot of her Historical Chypre, which I fell in love with (and bought nearly every drop she had) during the Chicocoa Scentsation.  The perfect peachy chypre, it is the essence of everything I love about Liz’s work;  I’m praying she brings it back soon. Chanel Coco (the original).  Blame March.  I wondered what y’all were yarking on about.  Now I know.  Amouage Epic Bath Gel and Body Creme. (not too far behind on this one, right?   I know it’s a 2009 but I wasn’t able to make it to the Dubai launch -previous plans, don’tcha know…)…anyhoo, 2011 made it New To Musette.   I just might make it through the winter (and the coming Apocalypse) with this.  I’m going to have to send my water bills to Christopher Chong, though.  Or His Majesty.  Whichever one is most likely to pay.

Alahine.  Epic FAIL.  Can you believe it?  Neither can I.  I waited 2 years to sniff that and when I did……..nothing.  I mean, it’s nice.  But what in the hell are you people smelling that transports you so?  March can’t even SPELL it, she is so in love.  She’s all ‘Alahiiiiiiiine’.  Wish I could have what she’s having.  sigh.

BestChowDiscoveries: Trader Joe’s Chicken Shu Mai.  For all I know these are made with chicken feet and beaks.  But isn’t that the best part? Sonoma Farm (from Chicago, go figure) Hot Pickled Garlic (that’s not what it’s called but that’s what it is ).   The website is seemingly gone and their stuff is hard to find (and when you do, at Food Fairs, etc, well, let’s just say they are not Good With the Publick.  But!  these (and the Brussels Sprouts) are worth the slog. Perfect in everything and yummy alone.  But I suggest you actually BE alone when you eat this stuff.  You will be comin’ in HOT for awhile…

Movies:  I hate going to the movies so I’m usually months behind everybody else.  And I admit to being Cranky Old Bat about the sheer volume of crap that gets released every month – there must be a whole lotta money needs launderin’, is allz I got to say (don’t believe me?  take a look at this 2011 list  (and I’m not even that fussy – I love blow’emups and Tony Scott!).  I did brave the plex for Contagion.   3 of us in the theatre.  Hey, I could get used to that!  El O hated the movie.  I thought it was quietly horrifying.  I also finally got around to The King’s Speech - hey I said I was behind! Why didn’t the gen pop like this film?  I think Geoffrey Rush could read the phone book and I would be entranced.   The funny, touching scene with him and Colin Firth when Lionel parks himself in St. Edward’s Chair…  Pitch-perfect.

March says: I went back and looked at the release dates of new-ish perfumes I enjoyed, and … they all came out in 2010.  So this year has been kind of a dud for me, in terms of new releases.  The one exception is Bottega Veneta, a less-powdery alternative to the new iteration of Cuir de Lancome, if you like the smell of expensive handbags.  Mostly I’ve been enjoying old favorites gathering dust in my collection, including Alahine, Jubilation 25, Coco, Tauer Orris, and Lutens’ Fleurs de Oranger.  I can think of worse things.  Anita sez:  that’s Alahiiiine! to you, li’l Missy.

Patty chimes in: This has been a weirdly great year for me in finding new loves.  From Prada Candy to the new JAR Bed of Roses, to Flowerbomb Extrait to a never-smelled bottle of the now-discontinued Lorenzo Villoresi Ylang-Ylang I found in my closet (yes, everyone should have closets like mine where you find a box full of perfume you forgot you had) that has sent me to the moon (um, see yesterday’s post for histrionics over this), it’s been a mixed bag of great smells.

I still love Bertrand Duchafour because he’s prolific and great, and I know for a fact there is more great stuff coming in 2012, so he gets my vote for Perfumer of the Year? Decade?  Oh, wait, we are two years in a new decade, it’s too early.

Ann’s Picks:

MDCI’s La Belle Helene: Up until this baby, no way,  no how was I ever going into pear territory again. Annick Goutal’s Petite Cherie went sour on me in record time and too many cheap pear body products left me shuddering. Until a sweet Posse swapper sent me a sample of La Belle, and one day, feeling brave, I said, “Oh, what the heck!” and put it on. Wowza! Now this is a pear I can wear. On me, it starts out a little bright, but true to the fruit,  and later, deepens, getting burnished down to a slightly gourmand (is that chocolate I smell?) soft oriental. It has a touchable, almost suedelike vibe to it, not unlike SL’s Daim Blond. It’s almost as if her gloves got left behind in the pear orchard, instead of atop a bushel basket of apricots.

Maison Martin Margiela Untitled: The fashion minimalist in me (I’ve always loved designers such as Zoran and Ronaldus Shamask) coveted this cool, paint-dipped bottle long before I had a chance to sniff the juice. And what lovely green juice it is: A hit of bitter green galbanum a la Cristalle segues beautifully into some musky, almost smoky incense, and thankfully, not an ashtray in sight.

Parfumerie Generale’s Indochine: This has turned out to be one of my favorite comfort “blankies” this winter. It reminds me a bit of Kenzo’s Amour (perhaps the thanaka wood that both share) but to my nose, the PG is richer, more creamy, dreamy and woody. This in a body cream would be nothing short of heaven in a jar. Its stablemate, Cadjmere, is another fave, although it gets a little cheeky with me if I do more than dab it.

Bottega Veneta: This lovely is helping to make a leather lover  out of me, despite my earlier misgivings about the note. BV’s easy elegance just coos quiet sophistication and makes me feel like a million bucks. And it doesn’t hurt that the bottle’s a thing of beauty. Now, if we can just get our hands on some MPG’s Cuir Fetiche to try …

And here’s a wonderful scentiment   from Tom, which we all share!!!

I’m doing my “best of” scent-wise on PST, so I’ll content myself with with celebrating a different best here: YOU GUYS!  That’s right!  I want to toast all of you out there, fellow bloggers, commenters and readers.  In the last several years of blogging, reading, learning and meeting people I can honestly state that I have never met a more warm, funny, intelligent and giving group of people.  YOU are the best of 2011 or any other year and I wish you all the best in the future.

For more looks back at 2011 please visit  Perfume-Smellin’ Things, Bois de Jasmin, Now Smell This and Grain de Musc.

by the Stuffed-to-the-Gills Musette

So…the frenzy of Christmas (in the US) is done.  Whew!  Ours was very quiet, which was great.  I have spent way too many years stressing myself into a spasm over the Perfection of the Presentation.  One holiday I took a look at it and realized that it was a weird form of aggression, so I cut it out. Such relief.  The food is  good and my house is clean but if the dishes aren’t perfectly matched and I don’t always have the good silver out, guess what?  My guests still seem to have a good time.  Better yet?  So do I.

Which brings me to the point of this post – sorta.   Okay, not yet but roll with me here – I’m still in a food-coma.

We haven’t focused on big-time gifts in a long time.  We have nearly everything we need and a whole lot of what we want, so getting tons of stuff is just …more stuff.  I mentioned on Ann’s post yesterday that I got one of those Posh Pocket crossword books and was over the moon!  I am an inveterate crossworder and those books are perfect for throwing in your handbag.   I was a happy girl!

What I have focused on in the past decade?  The food!  And guess what?  Everybody else does, too!  We ate like porkrinds yesterday – breakfast was a huge affair, with Pork Products Unlimited (pigs fear me), latkes, cheese souffle, home made yeasted waffles (just take a minute and consider the calorie count of what I just listed there) pots and pots of good, dark coffee and fresh-squeezed OJ ….oh, it was wonderful.

After breakfast, El O broke out the ham, which had been brining in ginger ale and garlic overnight – we got that in the oven for a sloooooow bake  for dinner.  Scalloped potatoes, spinach souffle, homemade Parker House rolls, green beans from this summer’s garden, my mother’s corn pudding…..ah, joy.  Miette double chocolate cake.  Sublime. We count no carbs on Christmas, we just walk a lot, hoping to stave off the poundage with brisk movement.  And every. single. person. we ran into in our small burg talked about….Food!  What they made, what they ate, what they wished so-and-so would quit making because it sucks sooo bad…..all aspects of chowing down were discussed, from one end of town to the other.   Several of my neighbors were unrepentant is revealing the multiple dinners they would  happily ingest that day, often  from the same table!   Leftovers Rule!! Everyone’s eyes shone, as they described some heirloom dish, passed down through the generations, that their own grandchildren are now enjoying each holiday.   The continuity of family and community seems to be so much through food.  Go on Facebook today, see what the bulk of your friends are posting.  I’ll bet it’s mostly food.  Chatted with friends this morning (Boxing Day) – we did not talk about gifts.  We talked about what we ate yesterday.  The Italian pork roast (oh, good grief!  my heart nearly stopped with desire)… chicken meatballs with spinach (and a spirited discussion over the merits of fennel seed  therein (I’m a fennel gal, meself) sweet potato v. pumpkin pie, chocolate, peppermint, red velvet……El O’s cub was here yesterday, having spent Christmas Eve at his mother’s.  No talk of ‘what he got’ .  Instead, pictures of the groaning board, with a beautiful crown roast and this really strange dish with grapes and whipped topping that was kinda freaky-looking – but they love it!  It’s a family tradition.  He brought his best friend to both houses and it reminded me:  food tastes much better shared.

And we are family here…so I wanna know ALLLL about it!  What did you guys EAT?  What are your  fun/goofy/great food traditions?  (mine is:  if you take the last of the corn pudding that’s in the fridge I will Bite you so hard you will cry!).  Are you known for a special dish?  Or are you the one who Brings the Milk?  My cousin is required to bring her mamma’s tamales, no matter what the occasion.  Another friend, whose cooking runs counter to the rural community she just moved to, has been asked to bring the milk to community gatherings – I guess that tofu lasagne didn’t go over too well…

Can’t wait to hear about it.  You can also tell me what perfume you wore: mine was Diaghilev, which was a perfect scent for yesterday’s cooking and eating and walking extravaganza.  Tomorrow it’s back to work.  And oatmeal.  sigh.   I’m wearing Mitsouko to prepare for it.

image:  tolkienlibrary.net

  by Musette the Embarrassed

American Midwest, circa 1962:  we had Hershey’s Chocolate Bars.  Life was good.  Then came M&M Wafer Bars (the precursor to Kit Kat)…and for a brief period of time, Hostess Fingers (I swear that’s the name of them but this was in the Jurassic Era – the cupcakes were 12cents and came on the little paper slab with the cellophane wrapping.  The fingers were cooler – the same cupcake/filling/icing combo, but elongated and narrow – 4 to a package.  I think they were 24cents.

I was in chocolate heaven.

Brussels, circa 1980.  My first pot du creme. Chocolate,  of course.  I nearly fainted right then and there.  This was chocolate, unlike anything I’d ever tasted.  Next up, hot chocolate made with pastilles instead of milk and Hershey’s syrup!  Who knew?

I went dark,darker,darkest….and it was good (except for the ‘darkest’ which got a little gnashy for me – I’m happy as a chocolate clam around 65%)….fell in love with Recchiuti and learned the joys of sea salt and Bourbon vanilla…and bourbon…and smoky caramels….but still stayed within ‘safe’ and ‘accepted’ zones….no odd pairings – and I have never cottoned to the idea of fruit and chocolate (yah, I know.  I’m a weirdo)… the occaisonal orange or raspberry-infused something is o-kaaay..but my heart is never really in it.

So last year, I got this box from a pal in Switzerland, during the craziness of Swapmania. In addition to the incredible decants of incredibly fabulous perfumes, there was a package of chocolate bars!  Some really smooth stuff in there….Bourbon Vanilla, milk and creme – wonderful, comfortable, expected tastes and I dove in!  There was an orange one, which I sort of looked at, then put aside to share give to a friend.

And then, at the bottom of the hefty stack……a dark chocolate LEMON PEPPER bar.

WTH?

I stood there, stunned, trying to figure out who on earth would even begin to contemplate a concoction like that.  Lemon and Pepper belong on Fish.  On Chicken.  On fresh, new asparagus and spinach.  Chocolate?  Oh, you freaks.  Oh, HELLZ naw! I put the bar back in the box and shuddering, went back to munching on the safe, acceptable (and fabulous) Bourbon Vanille…..

…and slowly grew ashamed.

See, I pride myself on my gustatory adventurousness, even though I know I am not really that adventurous.  But I have worked in so many commercial kitchens, sous-ed (albeit as intern) under so many interesting chefs…. heck Charlie Trotter taught me how to correctly dice an onion!  So I’m supposed to be adventurous, the ethnic, female version of Anthony Bourdain, because I am Just That Cool, right?  Surely I am capable of trying a lemon pepper chocolate bar!  Well, I’m embarrassed to say it took me nearly 4 days to work up the nerve to pop that wrapper.  But when I did!  OMG!

Now there are those in the Posse family who are, doubtless, doubled over in laughter at the thought of the MightyMightyMusette quailing before a chocolate bar, big fat sissy that she is.  But it was just such a weird thing to contemplate.  Who knew this could be such a sublime combination!  The little fleck of lemon zest and the zing of the pepper augment the sweet smoothness of the Frey dark chocolate, which is not too dark – I am not a  deep dark varietal chocolate lover and prefer a lot of smoothness and a decent amount of sweetness in my dark – this is a classic, eatable mainstream dark chocolate – full of flavor without tipping over into saccharine.

And the lemon!  The pepper!

And wouldn’t you know it?  After a short stint at Target it seems as if you now cannot get those damn things in the US for love nor money.  And forget about the Frey website.  Some hamster got ahold of a Flash program and ….well, if you can navigate it you are a better web-er than me!  So I’m stuck begging for scrabs of bars and hoping I can trade ridiculous things, come Swapmania.  But I just wanted to put that little taste-worm out there for y’all!  The whole Frey line, apparently available in groceries all over the EU, are just lovely – and none moreso than this absurd pairing!

What is the world coming to?  What’s next?  Chocolate and Strawberry? Oh, the humanity!

What are your favorite chocolate pairings?  What is the weirdest pairing you’ve experienced?  Is there something you simply cannot imagine pairing? (mine would be squid and chocolate). And how in the blasted blazes do I get Frey to distribute in the US again? 

photo: cleverbastards.co.nz

photo: chocolatefrey