Roadrunner – the most famous fast food…

That brings us to the sense of taste as the last one to cover. I basically have no sense of taste, I like bland food best with little seasoning, I eat the same things every day and don’t care. I am unamerican because I do not eat apple pie or pizza. I do not appreciate all of the good food that is around me, and certainly do not appreciate a good chef. I have heard all of this and pretty much own up to being one of the pickiest eaters on the planet. That sums it up. But there is more than just taste at work when we put food into our mouths.

Taste is simply flavor. Taste buds detect flavor but the rest of our mouth is under the operation of the sense of touch, where temperature and texture both matter. Sense of smell is a precursor to tasting as well. All of these play a role in making me the eater that I am, a simple non-adventurous one, and yet these do not affect a lot of people at all, making them very adventurous taste testers. That is my first point to describe what taste is really about – adventure. An adventure is a daring, hazardous undertaking. You can see it in people’s eyes when trying something new. Does anything give an easier opportunity for an adventure that a taste test? Am I going to be delighted at the taste or appalled by it? And when it comes to making food, don’t all 5 sense work in harmony during the experience? See it before going in, hear it cooking, smell it as it cooks, touch it during cooking, taste it after cooking. A total adventure. Except for me – anything daring in taste ends is disaster.

My second point is that taste has another purpose. What is one of the first things babies learn to do? Put everything in their mouth. Animals do this too, mostly by licking. It is a method of identifying objects. You might think it is only about identifying food, which is the mouth’s primary purpose. The sense of touch in the mouth also reveals what is fun. Or what is not fun. I know a dog that will go insane for an ice cube. I knew a dog that would not eat popcorn, but would chew and eat a roll of toilet paper. Not going to describe how we learned that our dog ate a marble, because we did not see her eat it or know it was missing. Then there is the time my little dog ate a bite of hotdog with mustard on it. Oh my goodness I have never seen legs try to move that fast as he skidded (best word here since the linoleum flooring provided no traction) from under the table across the kitchen to the carpet in the dining room, then sat politely as we all burst into laughter as if he had been severely offended by what we had done. He would not return to the kitchen while we finished that meal, which was unique for the food hound that he was. However, the next morning he was back under the table making sure that he would get to any food dropped before we could bend down to save it.

Is there a taste adventure out there for you today as you embark on this Happy Friday? Please subscribe on the Perspectives page.

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