Aromas fade, sauces thicken, fats congeal.
It can also be a good way to add a small amount of coffee aroma to a sauce without adding bitterness.
Like zucchini flowers, fuki no to buds are pleasantly bitter, and the slightly sweet, heady aroma of the sauce (a byproduct of miso) made a good match.
The aroma of barbecue sauce is alluring at the stylish new Geyser Smokehouse, 21021 Geyserville Avenue, Geyserville, (707) 857-4600, in a narrow brick-walled pub at the north edge of the Alexander Valley, 10 minutes north of Healdsburg.
It certainly is a place for families and features an accommodatingly casual, lively atmosphere that the restaurant describes as "hospitaliano". The look supposedly imitates an Italian cafe, but most noticeable are the demonstration pasta-making kitchen in the lobby and the heavy aroma of tomato sauce that pervades the atmosphere.
I happened onto Khao Sarn by accident, but after sticking my nose in the dining room and breathing in the warm, pungent aromas of fish sauce, holy basil and dried shrimp, I knew I wanted to eat there.
Decades' worth of molds and funguses impressed into the clay add to the aroma of the finished sauce, says Wong.
Despite the continuing renovation at Grand Central Terminal, the rich aroma of shellfish, Worcestershire sauce and cream still greet you the minute you walk through the door.
Anyone who is willing to get past the odor that emanates from a bottle when the cap is taken off finds that the aroma dissipates after the sauce is added to food.
And around every corner, open-air kitchens perfumed the air with the fruitiness of olive oil, the smoke and sizzle of Florentine steaks and the tangy aroma of bubbling Bolognese sauce.
