So yes I’m Indian and the neighbour is white. I don’t know if this is a racist incident and don’t want to call it as such, but I am kind of shaken because Seattle is such a diverse place and this is the first time I’ve experienced such an incident.
Basically my partner and I have lived one year in this place no issues and were additionally away for over a month bc my partner lost their dad.
We just got back 2 days ago and used the kitchen for the first time in over a month yesterday to make a simple meal: gyro meat and rice. Yes we did use some aromatic spices so I won’t deny it had a strong smell.
Today morning, our upstairs neighbour came and said that the smell of our cooking keeps her awake and she has to work early and asked us to cook earlier because she could smell it till 11pm even though she used scented candles.
That’s a bit weird to me, or rather a situation I’m helpless in, because we were done with dinner and dishes by 10pm and I went to bed early. We did cook a bit late but again it didn’t take long to cook the meal and were done cooking by about 9pm. Also we had cooked with the windows closed and only the exhaust on.
Again I agree that’s a bit late to have dinner but we haven’t had issues in the one year we have been here and the noise from cooking is what we were worried about and tried to mitigate. But the smell??
On top of saying the smell keeps her up, she also mentioned that she’s lived here 7 years and that she has only smelled the nearby Thai restaurant about 4 times. I don’t know how that relates to this, and I don’t know how she could smell the Thai restaurant at all because it is at the opposite end of the block and there are like 4-5 buildings between our unit and the restaurant.
Just now I came home from spending time with a friend and reheated some of the leftover rice and meat and the smell started like wafting everywhere and my partner and I both got stressed so my partner told me to put it back in the fridge. I also turned on the exhaust and opened a few windows to mitigate the smell but I’m terrified that lady will come again tomorrow and complain.
What do I do in this situation? I’m also sensitive to smells though I’ve never been kept up by smelling unpleasant things. Also it’s Seattle and we smell weed 24×7 so is cooking with spices really more offensive to the nose than that?
I just feel a lot of despair over this situation because obviously I don’t want to feel afraid to microwave leftovers in my own home. Like I get she needs to wake up early but does she get to control what time I cook and eat my food for that?
And we are willing to cook earlier but right now I genuinely can’t even reheat food because the food smells when I microwave it. I just feel very lost in this situation and don’t know how to control the smell of our cooking. Anyone else face anything like this? Did you stop using spices? Is there some magic tool that absorbs all the smell when you cook so that it doesn’t spread out?
Sorry I genuinely have no idea how to deal with this or feel about this.
submitted by /u/kindacoping
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