Olfactory Observation of the Day # 4: Eggplant & Iris {Scented Thoughts}

Iris by Nall, 1985-1986

By Marie-Hélène Wagner

I once had under my fork a tasty roasted eggplant for dinner. I do not know the varietal. I had been eating eggplants all my life. But on that evening, a couple of years into blogging helping perhaps, I suddenly experienced the illusion that I was eating an eggplant roasted with orris roots...

It was soft, an elegant, precious, suede-like sensation. It perfumed the mouth. It was unexpected and a chance encounter filled with elusive ambiguity. I repeated the experience, unsure of its veracity. And yes, there it was once again, a floral iris facet hidden within the appetizing flesh of the eggplant, with its singed purple. Having an English dinner at dusk with a direct, ground-level view into a garden emphasized the hazy, mysterious quality of the iris sensation arising from the kitchen garden vegetable. As it turns out, eggplants and irises share ionones.