That smells good!

How can you really appreciate food if you have no sense of smell? I realised how much I use my sense of smell when buying and cooking food. I recently learnt that during Ramadam Muslins can not even sit in a room with someone eating as this is viewed as breaking their fast. It reminded me of a story I read when I was young about a boy who visited a different world, he was asked what he wanted to eat and ordered tomato soup followed by roast beef. Presently the aroma of the most delicious tomato soup drifted into the room but no soup appeared. Then the smell of roast beef, with roast pototes, carrots, pea and gravy entered the room gradually the boy's hunger abated. I'm not entirely convinced that we can be satisfied by smell alone but I can't imagine cooking and eating a meal without being aware of its smell.
Here is also another aspect to smell. Today I cooked a loaf of bread and on re-entering the house its enticing smell made me feel safe and secure without me knowing why? Later I realised that as a child my dad had worked at a bakery and every day brought home a warm loaf - the smell took me back when I was a child and my dad came home bringing this aroma with him, my mother welcoming him, and the sense that everything was now alright.