When Fish is Dried in the Apartment

$75K in damages from odor?

i had no idea nuns even owned that much.

Oh and about those nuns. They need to get laid.

I would love to try that stovetop smoker you see on cooking shows but I know people would complain.
till then I try my hand at making gravlax instead of smoked salmon.

Great, a story to support the notion of the "stinky chinese."

Good for the nuns, perhaps the lease should be updated to ban smells emanating from units going into hallways and bothering other tenants.(extreme cases like this one)
Also, assessing a cleaning-sanitation fee upon moving out.

Why my habits must disrupt others which are paying with hard earned money to live in the city?

I used to brew beer in my apartment and the aroma certainly did go into the hall. Nobody ever complained. They didn't ask for any of the beer, either.

I also used to bake four loaves of bread at a time. I'd leave my apartment about 20 minutes before the loaves were done and go for a walk. When I came back, the smell of baking bread was wonderful. Nobody ever complained.

I used to do lots of cooking with garlic. I know the aroma went past my door. It can't be helped. My neighbor was an excellent cook and I always used to love the smell that emanated from his apartment.

That being said, I can imagine that smoking fish can produce a strong smell depending on the variety of fish. I have an idea that this wasn't done all day every day. It seems to me that there needs to be some negotiation here.

I'm not clear about who is offended by the odors. Are there other tenants who are complaining? Is it just the owners of the building who are complaining while the tenants are tolerant of this activity? Opening a window would certainly reduce the strength of the emanating aromas. I think a law suit indicates that there is something that we don't know about that is preventing meaningful negotiations (if, indeed, those are really needed).

Ah but you see those are all good smells, the kind that most anyone can appreciate, as opposed to the smell of smoking fish, which at times can be down right vile.

only because they were confused by this new good smell, i remember when my mom would drive me to brooklyn on the BQE and it would at times smell like cookies, cake, or really good bread, never maple syrup though.

That's pretty disgusting and disrespectful. This is NY, not a rural village in China.
You move to this country, you have to learn the habits here, not impose yours upon others and expect them to accomodate you.

If you go to China right about now, you'll see plenty of fish being line-dried outside. Long story as to why dried fish is popular and auspicious during Chinese New Year... but it's mostly done on clotheslines, outdoors, about a month prior to Chinese New Year - not just in rural villages, but in major cities as well. I'll bet anything that the Lims think they're being CONSIDERATE to the Missionary Sisters when they're not drying their fish right out a window.

With that said... some customs should be left at home where everyone knows that it's not a bad thing. Drying fish here isn't auspicious, it just smells funky.

Ok #3, I'm sneaking up to your apartment to check out that great stuff. And I'm thinking, so what do those nuns eat? Chicken soup out of the can? If the neighbor's smells like fish, get some tarragon and sprinkle it around to upscale the experience a bit.

Smells & ethnic divides aside, smoking food in an improperly zoned area is a fineable crime since it is illegal in Manhattan with the only known exception being made for Dinosaur BBQ underneath Riverside drive.