Yesterday was a ‘sun’day and this is a frangipane,almond and raspberry brioche which formed an early part of my day. My ongoing symptoms of anosmia ( loss of smell and taste) has made me mad for the combination of almond and raspberry baked goods. I know it is a traditional and even classic pairing of flavours but it was never a favourite of mine.That is until my last bout of Covid, 18 months ago, which seems to have permanently damaged my olfactory system. My grip on taste and smell has always been odd. When I was younger the first sign of an incoming migraine was a hypersensitive smell ability. For about 8 hours before the migraine arrived I had such a powerful sense of smell I could have been a police tracker dog. My sense of smell was so acute. This was not a good thing for a woman who worked in hospitals. Then came the crushing, piercing head pain, for however long it took, and then a few days of total anosmia when I had to stop cooking from scratch and eat food other people had cooked or readymade meals. For several days after I would have to ask my fellow diners what I was eating.
So here I am now with about 20% smell and taste and my lifelong personal preferences turned on their head. Cheese straws my #1 baked goods are just pap and a bakewell tart, about #90 for most of my life is now my new idea of Nirvana. Taste and smell are also transitory and fragile, one mouthful is like a flavour bomb and maybe 20 seconds later there is just nothing. In the bright sunshine of yesterday Drakes Island was just like my flavour experience. One minute it was there.
And 20 seconds later it was gone.
Eating now is about discovering the things I can taste which is, in many ways, so liberating.I can no longer head straight for what I know I like on a menu but experimentation is a whole gorgeous new world.
Frangipane brioche anyone?
theoldmortuary.design 
that looks delicious. and on the opposite end of the spectrum, I am suffering from the long covid symptom of an ‘altered sense of smell,’ parosmia. this is where I have phantom or distorted sense of smell, meat/blood smell in grocery stores, garbage, mold, rotting things, anywhere at any time, off an on. long story, but I thought it was me, or I was crazy until I called the university hospital and met a specialist who works with both patients who have lost their sense of smell or gained an altered sense of smell. she had it at one point and smelled formaldehyde, gasoline, and grapefruit in odd places and time. after testing, she told me that I just have to wait it out, it’s been a year and is not as frequent, but still daily. here’s to us both regaining our smell balance
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I have a little Parosmia . Occasional smell of burning tar treated wood , when I am outside. Certain vegan products smell of the farmyard. Much more infrequent than 18 months ago.
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the doc told me the burning and smoke smells are common with this. I’m hoping mine will continue to fade away over time
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