This is a great illustration to Oakeshott’s point about general rules of conduct:
I could have made everybody’s life at work less pleasant by heating borscht in a shared microwave and eating pickled cabbage in the office. But I don’t do it, much as I love these foods.
It’s not about people not eating ethnic foods. Eat them, of course. We all love our ethnic foods. I’m positively crazy about mine. But we are all happier if we keep the particularly ethnic components away from shared spaces.
Clarissa's Blog 
Man, this brings back memories. The chinese students in my grad student lab used to microwave fish. It also echoes the ever-reliable asian american trope of “school lunch smelled weird” as a defining childhood trauma.
Urmi Bhattacharyya, the Rosa Palak of the break room.
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This is legit hilarious. 😆😆😆
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I know it’s not for everyone, but… over years of getting invited to friends’ houses I learned to love the knock-you-over smells of their parents’ kitchens. Like a big sign saying “REAL FOOD HERE”. Shrimp paste. Crab soup. Sau Rieng. Colanders full of tiny fish on the kitchen table. Garlic-peeling parties.
Given the choice, I’d take those odors at the office any day over having to endure close proximity with other people’s perfume, cologne, or Tide detergent. The fish and garlic don’t give me a splitting headache.
In a perfect world, people would be considerate about all those things. But, you know, synthetic perfumes first. That’s chemical warfare.
-ethyl
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