Now Smell This has had a long-overdue redesign. I feel I should apologize for leaving it so ugly for as long as I did, although of course I will think it looks ugly again in about a month, and some of you may not care for the way it looks even now.
General improvements: the site is now reasonably mobile responsive — it should function much, much better on mobile devices…
Hopefully the site will only be down for a few hours, but you never know. If I can, I'll have a poll loaded by early afternoon (Eastern US time), but if I can't get things working in time, apologies in advance!
During the recent heat wave, I spent a lazy afternoon on the couch with the fan pointed at me while I perused the July 1955 issue of Woman’s Home Companion. I was looking for the article featuring Lilly Daché’s “Secrets of Lifelong Glamour,”1 when I stumbled across these words and sat straight up:
Like most Frenchmen, Balmain appreciates good food and takes a great interest in his own table. In the warm summer days ahead you might like to try his “Vent Vert” salad. Here is the recipe he gave me—if you can’t get some of the ingredients, you can eliminate or substitute as you choose.
It was from Margaret Thompson Biddle’s column, “Companion in Paris.” “Vent Vert” salad clearly borrowed its name from Balmain Vent Vert fragrance. Here’s the recipe:
“Vent Vert” Salad
Cut young romaine into pieces to make 1 quart. Add 1 cup each of diced celery, chopped endive, thinly sliced green pepper and about 8 asparagus tips cut in half…
Not about perfume, but here is the trailer for the upcoming short film about Coco Chanel, Once Upon A Time. Starring Keira Knightley, directed by Karl Lagerfeld.
We haven’t talked about chocolate around here in a good long time, so in honor of Valentine’s Day, here are quick reviews of five chocolate bars. Plus two Kusmi teas just because. Do share any of your own chocolate or tea favorites in the comments!
This is a spendy New York brand that reportedly makes great hot chocolate, but I’ve never tried any of their products except this admittedly sort of strange bar. Numerous little bits of dried banana translate into an oddly bumpy exterior similar to a puffed rice chocolate bar, and lend a satisfying chewy-crunchy texture. I frequently complain that bars don’t have enough “additives”, but this one arguably doesn’t have enough room left for the chocolate — chocolate purists would probably not like it, but then, chocolate purists probably wouldn’t like any of my favorite bars…