the truly delicious smells filled the air and he suddenly found himself standing flat-footed salivating over the musings of how good the sausages would taste and what beer would best accompany them : it was the kind of food that had filled the void left behind by his demotion and its scent had brought with it the whispers of a malaise that he had sometimes succumbed to as he found respite from his mind numbing office work with crowded lunches that stretched deep into the afternoons .