I remember the first aroma I associated with America. It was in our family’s first apartment in Philadelphia, it was the smell of someone cooking behind some other number door, and I don’t know why, but I thought it was someone above us. Vaguely it smelled of some strange meat, more like some soup, salty almost briney the smell — I still can’t place what ethnicity to connect it to, I’m for some reason thinking Middle Eastern. Not quite Indian. I smelled something something like it just recently, which is why I’m thinking of it, caught a whiff of it in my current apartment hallway. I wonder what dish it is, maybe it’s the same one. Wouldn’t that be a kick?
