March 14, 2013
by Bikeyface
A Nose Knows
Riding bikes is fun, but sometimes it’s hard to get down the street. Especially in a neighborhood with so many restaurants.
It’s so easy to be tempted to stop and eat everything. I’m personally keeping several restaurants in business that are on my route. But there’s danger in letting your stomach do the navigating. For example if some people figured out our weakness they may try to take advantage.
Then there’s plain old bait and switch.
And we haven’t even started barbecue season! If you’re cooking something good, don’t be surprised if I hop your fence. I should eat before I leave the house.
That’s why cops should be on bikes rather than in cars, they can smell crimes before they see them (only half kidding about that).
Police should be on bikes to reduce city expenditures for fuel, maintenance and health care, and so the police can divest of their windshield bias.
But yes, I want crime fighters to use at least the sense of sight, sound and smell to chase down crime (using taste and touch might be a violation of people’s rights…)
I’m sure you would like Portland….. well maybe we might be too polite
Oh, yes, the smells are so amazing. When I lived in my tiny coastal refuge, I passed a Thai place every time I commuted to work. Such a good smell.
Now the most “strong” odor I get is a vaguely skunky smell and a lot of patchouli when I roll through the student co-op ghetto. Still makes me hungry, though.
Ha ha .. good one! As always I can never start early on bike to have liberty of stopping with desire to eat! May be I shall look for leisure ride with nose in full action!
LOVE this! I used to ride my bike by 3 different chocolate factories on my way to Bikram yoga early in the morning (on an empty stomach). It was torture!
Ah yes, Cambridge Brands is on my way home, and I can always tell what they’re making when I ride by.
A co-worker and I were riding into work and talking about the “fake food” smells that certain chains pump out on purpose- Panera, Subway and Dunkin Donuts mostly.
And you’re right summer time is open window season, so it’s not just BBQ, but whatever anyone is making.
I’m always hungry when I get home.
There is a coffee roaster in Winchester somewhere by the lakes, I have to follow my nose sometime.
Back in the days of the old NECCO factory one could ride down Mass Av in Cambridge enveloped in sugary sweetness.
before Hostess went bankrupt, they had a bakery on Dexter, in Seattle. I loved the smell of it, even though I didn’t eat their products. love the summer when you can smell what everyone is making for dinner
It is the beer-making smells that get me, in Salt Lake City, UT of all places! I ride past two micro-breweries on the way home and if the wind is right I am ready for a cold one well before I get home!
I have found some good places to eat by following my nose when the wind wasn’t too strong, but here in TX that doesn’t happen very often.
There’s a Miller brewery and a baked goods plant right across the freeway from my favorite pizza place. Get within 1/2 mile and it smells like rising pizza dough. Mmmmm!
When I used to cycle home from college, I used to take a detour just so I could cycle past a biscuit factory. It smelled so good!
I ride past a Wonder Bread bakery and a massive sugar plant each morning. Both smell delicious. Extra sugar on my Wonder Bread, please…
That’s weird. When I visit my brother in Brookline I never smelled anything even though it seemed like there was a restaurant every 20 feet.
My daily commute used to take me through first a Vietnamese neighborhood, then Chinatown. In the morning, I could smell them making the stock for the pho. On the way home, the cooking smells of both neighborhoods was even more tantalizing. Big exception was the bilious, starchy smell pouring out of the Chinese noodle factory – that, I could have skipped.
Bikeyface! I used to work at MIT Museum and pass by the mysterious mint chocolate aroma every day on Windsor St. You just made my day!
My commute brings me by Neillio’s in Lexington. If it’s not them making meatballs it’s the firemen next door grilling in the backyard.
On the converse,cars that smell like cigarettes and vanilla air fresheners a mile away.
My (Seattle) commute route takes me by the Theo Chocolates factory. When they’re roasting the cocoa beans the whole neighborhood smells like the most perfect brownies!