Taste, Scent, and Self

Gastronomy is not merely an experience of taste, but a soulful journey into Self guided by the senses. The echoes a flavor creates in our memory and imagination sometimes transform into a dream, pulling us from the infinity of the cosmos into our own depths.

A man had a dream. He searched for his self, swaying among the lights of the cosmos. As he wandered around the edges of hallucinatory shadows, every reality he touched became buried in his hair. In this existence where nothing seemed to hold meaning, he followed the subtle scent of a crisp, nutty aroma, plunging deeper into his reveries.

When he opened his eyes again, he was seemingly inside an ocean of blue beads. The waves of this sea, which he played in until exhaustion, gently carried him to the shore and placed a tender kiss upon his forehead. He felt a profound familiarity with the warmth against his skin, as if it had always been with him. He stood up and saw a temple before him—sublime above all else, yet close.

As he entered the temple, his heart was pounding with excitement, ready to burst from the sheer happiness he felt. Inside, he found the one thing he had always perceived as being so far away: a mirror. And in that mirror, there were a thousand fragments—different from himself, yet somehow closer to him than his own being.

He took a hesitant step toward the mirror. As he did, a blue bead under his foot rolled toward the glass, reminding him that he could trust. One, two, three steps, and the man began to run towards the mirror. He remembered then that everything was always within him, existing in a moment deeper than his consciousness. Spellbound, the man stood before the mirror and reached out his hand. He touched it, and as he did, a single poppy seed appeared, falling to the ground.

The man awoke, slowly and languidly reopening his eyes to the world. With the air of someone who had solved the mystery of life, he found himself in his kitchen and took a blissful taste of a poppy seed star bread.