Salmon
Prologue
“So the feature image is floral, but you’ve titled this post Salmon?”
“Don’t worry, it will all make sense.”
Rather simply, here is a silly little post for spring. Taste memories, much like smell memories, have the power to transport you to specific points in your life and conjure emotions from the past. A fair amount of research has been conducted on the connection between odors and memory (1). However (take this with a grain of salt, I’ve only conducted some light googling at this point), our sense of taste’s sole impact on recalling moments seems to have less of the research headline space (2). Perhaps this focus on olfactory science's connection to memory making over gustation's contribution is because smell heavily impacts taste, thus creating a sort of ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg’ situation. I digress.
What I really wanted to talk about is— salmon. One of my first salmon memory is factual. When I was little, I learned about how these unique fish can swim upstream.
At this point in my young life, salmon was a science lesson and not connected to any edible potential. My first taste encounter with salmon wasn’t until a family event at my cousins’ house. I don’t remember exactly what we were gathering for, but I reckon it was probably a birthday get-together. I ate it outdoors on their porch. The weather was perfect for mingling, kids running in and out, and chatting over delicious dishes. The prepared salmon was buttery, seasoned nicely, and an exciting opportunity to eat “adult food”. I think what appealed to me about salmon after eating it for the first time was that it wasn't overly fishy in taste. Honestly, my only other gustatory moments with fish were probably fish oil vitamins my mom wanted us to take, breaded fish sticks drowned in a healthy amount of ketchup, or the fried fish nuggets at the elementary cafeteria. And who knows if either of the latter two fish products actually contained any substantial amounts of real fish meat.
The next level of salmon tasting in my life was graduating from California rolls (arguably NOT REAL SUSHI) to a Philadelphia roll (also, definitely a westernized sushi). I was probably in middle school, and I have no clue where this took place. So my taste’s ability to recall has let me down in this instance. Since then, I have had more opportunities to eat Philly rolls. What is a Philly roll? Inside the seaweed-encased rice, a nice bite of salmon, often smoked and sometimes raw, sits next to a piece of avocado or cucumber, and cream cheese— the ingredient that gives this roll its name.
But wait! The dimensions of salmon do not end with taste alone. It has visual and auditory facets. As a word, it has roots in Old French and Latin. Furthermore, the English spelling does not visually correlate with the spoken pronunciation. As an image, it can take many forms relative to each individual's relationship with salmon in any form. Aside from categorizing the fish species, it also describes a shade of pinkish-orange. Consequently, salmon, the color, originated from … you won't believe it…the color of the salmon flesh. Salmon, the fish, gets its color from a diet of krill and shellfish (and sometimes coloring dye) (3). So if you are feeling fancy or particular, next time you see a nice pink instead of generically using the word “pink”, try this: “Oi, what a lovely shade of salmon!” And really, the whole reason this blog post exists is due to springtime bringing out some lovely pink (4) blooms, and I recently cooked some lemon pepper salmon. Essentially: Salmon on my mind (5).
Spring recipe refresh! Lemon pepper salmon, grain and veggie salad, and blueberries | Richmond VA, 2025
So, to close out this fishy rambling, here are my concluding thoughts (6). One, if you haven’t tried salmon, I think you should. Two, cherish the time spent enjoying meals with your loved ones, because you are making memories. Lastly, I think to properly round out my salmon experiences, next on my list would be to see a wild salmon run.
Sending spring cheer,
Mia
FOOTNOTES
A fun article overview for studies on smelling and memories.
Here's a short, fun, breezy write up about taste and memories and identity.
All salmon colored things are pink, but not all pink things are salmon.
The number of times I used the word salmon including the title and footnotes: 26
Thank you and congratulations for reading a whole post about salmon.