A few months ago, I was walking the streets of Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon and passed by Mido Cafe, one of Hong Kong’s oldest traditional cafes. But I didn’t stop. I was in a rush and thought, “Another time”. Now it has closed, possibly forever. There will not be “another time” – for me, and for many others.

I grew up in France, where I was more used to the smells and tastes of boulangeries (bakeries) than cha chaan teng. I haven’t had the chance to go back since the pandemic began, but whenever I pass by a bakery, the intoxicating smell of freshly baked viennoiseries transports me back to the streets of Paris – an inadvertent moment that unlocks memories of home, and a sense of comfort.

Smell and taste have a special ability to trigger memories because they hit right in the centre of our brain – the amygdala – responsible for memory and arousal. They have the amazing capacity to bring you back to a specific time or place; it’s perhaps the closest we can get to time travel.

In Marcel Proust’s 1913 novel In Search of Lost Time, the narrator experiences recollections of his past thanks to the taste of a madeleine cake. The famous Proust effect, however, doesn’t have to come from a madeleine – it can be anything, and happen anywhere, anytime.