# What's the correct way to deal with this situation (food smells in common areas)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 10, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589 "2009-07-10T18:01:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/121 "2009-07-20T02:53:33Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > And yes, some versions of curry stink like hell. I’m not sure what’s in them, but it smells like a cross between a very aged blue cheese and a 3-week-dead goat that’s been smeared with patchouli. Oh God. I think you might be talking about [hing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asafoetida). Satan’s spice. I stayed for four months with a family who apparently thought asafoetida should be applied as liberally and ubiquitously as salt, and I can barely think about the stuff without dry heaving. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/122 "2009-07-20T03:32:10Z")
**even sven** , that’s a good analogy. I’m not super familiar with Chinese cultural values, but it sounds pretty rude to me. **Lama Pacos** , I had to Google “hing” and I’m 100 percent certain I’ve never had it. Certainly I don’t cook with it. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/123 "2009-07-20T03:40:23Z")
Hing is used subtly in many Indian dishes and isn’t particularly perceptible or offensive when used correctly. When used as a flavor in its own right…barf. Anyhow, I wasn’t commenting on your food, I was commenting on the potential nasty smell CrazyCatLady might have detected, because I don’t usually find that curries smell like that either. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/124 "2009-07-20T03:57:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Hippy Hollow has detailed his steps to minimise the impact on others and that all seems reasonable, yet at the same time seems determinedly clueless about the effect he was having on others. He notes the comments he got were that the food “stinks”, yet he seems to think “smells interesting” could be substituted, and that the dislike of the smell was due to some sort of cultural imperialism without any apparent sense that curry, to people who don’t like curry, doesn’t simply smell like food they aren’t used it… it smells absolutely repulsive. How he can say that the smell of tea, coffee and bagels mingling made him gag and yet not have a problem creating a smell that, to others, is equally as gag-worthy and in their residence to boot is puzzling to me. Would Hippy Hollow not mind if he came home to tea, coffee and bagels once a month? He’s also quite adamant that only 5 people ever complained… is it all that likely that the ONLY five people bothered by it all spoke up? Isn’t it possible that there were more who said nothing out of politeness (perhaps lacking the words to express “Your food stinks” without trampling all over his culture). Maybe the people who said “Your food stinks” could have said “I find this odor to be extremely unpleasant”, would that have encouraged the OP to change his ways? In my experience, opening windows and doors will help dissipate and alleviate a strong odor. Attempting to mask the odor will only make it worse. Trying to mask the odor is like someone putting on perfume or aftershave even though s/he hasn’t bathed in a week. It doesn’t help at all. I don’t know how many times I’ve put up with annoying behavior in someone who works or lives close to me. If I lived in the OP’s building, I probably wouldn’t have said anything to him, partly because it wasn’t everyday, but also partly because he was an authority in the housing system. And that, to me, is the problem. The OP was a representative of the housing authority, he was supposed to keep the residents in line and solve disputes, but he instead chose to do stuff that he knew offended about half a dozen of them. And that’s only the ones who complained. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/125 "2009-07-20T04:08:36Z")
Those poor college students, forced to smell curry for a half a minute as they walked past Hippy Hollow’s door. What a stunning abuse of power on his part. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/126 "2009-07-20T04:20:54Z")
In my experience, cooking odors penetrate the apartments next to the cooking kitchen, not just the hallway. Most apartments/dorm rooms have vents in common. We’re not talking just half a minute while someone walks past his door. We’re talking about someone trying to study in his room, and getting a very strong odor in his room. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/127 "2009-07-20T04:36:50Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > In my experience, cooking odors penetrate the apartments next to the cooking kitchen, not just the hallway. Most apartments/dorm rooms have vents in common. We’re not talking just half a minute while someone walks past his door. We’re talking about someone trying to study in his room, and getting a very strong odor in his room. You’re just making that up. In the OP, Hippy Hollow was specifically told that it was the hallway that stunk. His kitchen was in his apartment, not in the common areas. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/128 "2009-07-20T04:46:10Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > So by this logic, if someone complains to you rudely, you change your eating habits? And the “different culture” you refer to I thought included West Indian food. There’s Cuban, Caribbean, and Indian restaurants in my town here. Now dirty clothes, sweatsocks, stale beer, and day old vomit - those were the smells that made me ill. Checking in as a half-Cuban, half Indian here. Between black beans in whole heads of garlic, and pungent tandoori and curries, I know stink. Stink is anything that lingers - clothes, stale beer, whatever. Your curry is equally as offensive as day old vomit. My friends in high school made fun of me if I showed up to hang out on a Friday night smelling like dinner. My brothers and I made it a habit to simply not wear our going-out or school clothes to dinner. We were always sure our bedroom doors were closed when cooking was going on as well. We’d happily help make dinner (if necessary), eat it, enjoy it immensely, and then promptly change our clothes and immediately go out. I would never cook a pungent meal for someone with a sensitive nose or strong allergies, nor in a shared or semi-shared space. It’s common sense. > [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > I get pretty punchy when people speak disparingly about cultural foods, because… it’s culture. I’m amazed that people do this without considering the cultural insensitivity of such comments. Cultural insensitivity? You’re full of it, plain and simple. I’d let someone know if their food was stinky - be it boiled cabbage, curry, or if they’d just come from a cheesemaking class. Stink is stink. It’s not culturally insensitive - it’s your olfactory at work. Frankly, I find it offensive that you can get away with essentially calling people racist and xenophobic when you’re simply too full of yourself to eradicate or simply go without your offending smelly food. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/129 "2009-07-20T05:21:15Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > Your curry is equally as offensive as day old vomit. Really? How do Indian restaurants manage to stay in business then? That’s a real head-scratcher. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/130 "2009-07-20T06:33:15Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > **even sven** , that’s a good analogy. I’m not super familiar with Chinese cultural values, but it sounds pretty rude to me. > > . Yes and no. I am also living right now in a culture not my own (in a predominantly Chinese culture). I find that sexism here is much more “accepted” than it would be in the “west” and that girls really are expected to look like girls. I have been scolded for being too rough with my daughter - the comment made was “she’s not a boy you know”. So while it is very rude to comment on clothing in that manner, it is also much more accepted to make such comments and comparisons in the chinese context. I don’t think its particularly well accepted in the states to make comments on other people’s food preferences. In fact I would think it kinda rude and indicative of insular breeding. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/131 "2009-07-20T06:41:51Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > I think Vegemite = Marmite, right?. No no no. Please by all the gods of Ammon Ra no. Vegemite is but a poor substitute of Marmite. Equating the two is akin to saying that a VW beetle is just as good as a 911. :)😉 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/132 "2009-07-20T06:53:27Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Really? How do Indian restaurants manage to stay in business then? That’s a real head-scratcher. I assumed the quoted part was meant to equate the lingering effects of curry to day-old vomit. Which, as much as I love curry, I agree does linger and stink up every last bit of your clothes. At the last Indian wedding I shot, the Turkish videographer and I got to talking about Indian food, and he humorously recounted to me how his wife forces him to take a shower if he wants to hop into bed with her after shooting an Indian wedding, because she could smell the curry spices on his clothes. For whatever reason, some people (of many different cultures) find the smell extremely offensive. As I said before, if people asked me reasonably to stop cooking my curry (or stinky cabbage or whatnot) in the living situation described in the OP, I probably would. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/133 "2009-07-20T14:26:19Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > No no no. Please by all the gods of Ammon Ra no. By the gods of Ammon Ra??!?! Haaa! I love it. I shall evoke the ancient Egyptian gods from now on. Especially when someone wants to sub vegamite for Marmite. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/134 "2009-07-20T15:18:28Z")
Hippy Hollow, did the smell of your curry linger for days? Or were these comments based on how it smelled as you were cooking/eating? ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/135 "2009-07-20T16:12:30Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Second, I have a number of students in the program I supervise who have strong cultural ties outside of the US - Mexico, Ireland, Korea, and India, specifically. If they choose to take a job in residence life, it sounds like I should let them know that the instant someone complains to them about their cooking in their apartment (having used good judgment to minimize the impact on others), they should stop, and poll everyone around them regarding what’s acceptable for them to eat. Sound reasonable? I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this. When do **you** think someone should be told to stop doing something that intrudes on the neighbor’s space? And let’s forget about hallways/common areas. Say that a smell or sound intrudes into a neighbor’s apt. When should action be taken on that? And don’t consider if the sound or smell is objectively offensive. One person’s music is another person’s nails-on-a-chalkboard. One person’s home cooking is another person’s raw sewage. Someone will always find a sound or smell offensive. When do you take action? After X number of people complain? After someone complains with a certain amount of offense? What is your criteria? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/136 "2009-07-20T16:52:38Z")
> [@Rubystreak](#): > > Hippy Hollow, did the smell of your curry linger for days? Or were these comments based on how it smelled as you were cooking/eating? So I should describe the apartment. The kitchen was at the rear of the apartment with the wall of the building on one side, and the living room on the other. It was galley style, so pretty small. There was no door to the kitchen so the front desk area would be a place where you could smell whatever’s cooking. As far as the hallway goes, it was probably 20 feet from the kitchen to the hallway door (which I rarely used). If you stood in front of the door you could probably smell what was cooking. Personally I think that “dorm smell” - the combination of paint, people, cleaning supplies that all institutional residences have - was the dominant smell. Typically as you walked past doors you’d smell what the people were into - cologne, perfume, Glade plug-ins, sweatsocks, liquor. The pervasive smells would be the stale beer if someone spilled it on the carpet, or vomit in the stairwell/hall, or cigarette smoke if a bunch of people had been smoking outside or at a bar. Surfer guys would bring in a seawater smell. Note that all of the pervasive smells involved people doing things in the hall; if you were doing something in your room it was pretty much contained in the room/right in front of the door. I’m pretty sure the complaints/rude comments came either as I was cooking or right after (one I distinctly remember was as I was walking out of the rarely used hallway door). ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/137 "2009-07-20T17:22:46Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this. When do **you** think someone should be told to stop doing something that intrudes on the neighbor’s space? And let’s forget about hallways/common areas. Say that a smell or sound intrudes into a neighbor’s apt. When should action be taken on that? > > And don’t consider if the sound or smell is objectively offensive. One person’s music is another person’s nails-on-a-chalkboard. One person’s home cooking is another person’s raw sewage. Someone will always find a sound or smell offensive. When do you take action? After X number of people complain? After someone complains with a certain amount of offense? What is your criteria? First, there’s a certain tolerance you have to have living in a dorm. You might live next to women who constantly spray perfume (I had this, plus the smell of lip gloss), a lacrosse player that’s kind of lax about cleaning his gear, or someone that uses a certain hair care product. Roommates usually are the ones that are most affected by this stuff. If the roommates can deal with the smell then it’s a good indication that it’s not causing an extreme issue. The dorms are cleaned every day, so most days at 7 am it smells pretty good (or at least chemically sterile)… and gets progressively stinkier throughout the day. The exception to the “recycle” factor is weekends, where there is no cleaning crew until Monday (or if we need to call someone if for a sewage leak (accidental or intentional), clean up vomit, etc.) Here’s an example of a smell issue. We had a guy that was an engineering major and he did a lot of soldering, I guess. At any rate it wasn’t a problem for the most part, even though it was noticeable. The tipping point was when the RA walked down the hall and thought something was burning. He then asked if people on the wing minded it. It was pretty mixed, but the fact that it smelled like burning was the determining factor - it was a pervasive, lingering smell and potentially confusing - if the smell was always like that, how would someone know if a real fire broke out? We had the guy move his soldering setup near his window and asked him to minimize the soldering (do it in lab if possible, etc.). But we also agreed that if he had to do a quick project during the day, he should close his door and open his window. Problem solved. There’s been a lot of comparison of food smells to sewage. There’s an open sewer near my office, and I’ve personally had to respond to a number of sewage overflows in buildings. I can assure you that I have never smelled a food smell that is similar to sewage. Music - again, people could play music at a reasonable volume during “day hours.” The complaints we got were of two varieties: someone putting their speakers out the window, exposing people several floors down to their music; and excessive bass. Turn down your music, turn down your bass, and the problem is solved. We never enforced a headphones only policy, because everyone realized that some noise was part of the dorm experience. Of course during quiet hours or finals week it was 24 hour quiet. Here’s how we dealt with complaints. If someone had a problem, we encouraged the people to respectfully raise the issue. Hall staff were available to assist if necessary, but we always encouraged people to try it themselves first. But there’s also a measure of reasonableness. I mentioned upthread the woman who claimed that she could hear her neighbor’s stereo when it was at a “3” with no bass or treble. Two of the staff went to her room and listened - we couldn’t hear it, especially with the air handler running. We explained to her that the neighbors had turned their music down as she requested, that it was a residence hall with no assurance of 100% quiet during the day, and that we would certainly enforce headphones-only listening during quiet hours - but the neighbors had a right to listen to music at a moderate level that two staff members with excellent hearing couldn’t detect. We had this conversation with students and parents before they signed leases and at orientation meetings. The absolute rules were during quiet hours and finals. Aside from that, reasonableness was the rule. I did this for eight years, was quite successful at it, and that’s the philosophy of every department I worked in. The same applied to sights and smells - take reasonable steps to minimize the impact. If you wanted to decorate your room interior with pictures of scantily clad women, and your roommate agreed, you could do that - but not put those pictures on your outside door. If you wanted to pop popcorn in your room and your roommate wasn’t bothered by it, that’s fine too - but open a window to dissipate the smell. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/138 "2009-07-20T19:42:45Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > (I had this, plus the smell of lip gloss) **blink** Geezuz Krist, you can smell my \*lip gloss \*through dorm house doors?? ETA: I’m extra sensitive to this info, cause I loves my lip gloss. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589/139 "2009-07-20T21:11:06Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > First of all, cooking burgers on an outside grill isn’t the same as cooking curry in a relatively closed environment, even with the fan on and apple and cinnamon cooking. In fact, if I had to hazard a guess, perhaps people thought the smell of apple and cinnamon didn’t really go with the curry, so they were reacting to both mixed together. > > Second, it may be your kitchen in your apartment, but as others have said upthread, your right to cook whatever you want ends with the right of other people not to have what they perceive to be unpleasant smells in their living area. Perhaps you could have found some middle ground and made your curry at a friend’s off-campus apartment. > > So I don’t think it’s a cultural issue. I think you just had some tactless people telling you something you didn’t want to hear and forced them to suck it up against their will. Which, to me, is the equivalent of punching them in the face. Except that punching someone in the face is illegal. Cooking food that someone doesn’t is just a social faux pas that is most likely completely unpunishable. Hippy paid for his apartment, which includes access to the cooking facilities. If someone has a problem with it, they have to take it up with someone with the authority to handle the situation. Barring that, they have the ability to move. While Hippy can take social niceties into account, he has absolutely no obligation to stop just because a certain number of people asked him to. And one thing nobody seems to have noticed is, **nobody even asked him to do that**! They just rudely (according to the OP) told him it stinks. This crap about not having the right to offend others is stupid, anyways. I can and almost always do try to be nice to everyone. And I generally expect others to do likewise. But that does not grant me the right to make them stop doing something just because they don’t live up to my standards. For example, I could get 3 or more people to come and say that certain words you say are offensive. This would not make you lose the right to say them. The only reason “disturbing the peace”, i.e. the stereo analogy, is wrong is because we’ve all gotten together and (representatively) made laws (or rules) that obligates a punishment for that action. Unless people had gotten together and done the same thing in Hoopy’s apartment, this analogy breaks down quite easily with the curry. Is there a line in the lease that gives you a “not stinky” apartment? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-correct-way-to-deal-with-this-situation-food-smells-in-common-areas/502589.md?page=6)