pass the salt and pepper

fyi: all lip smackers taste the same to me.

the first question usually asked after someone finds out i can't smell is "can you taste?"

of course i can taste.

when i take a bite of something it is only not as strong and full of life as your bite would be. as someone with a working nose eats the aromas and gases mix with the taste of the food which creates the flavor you know and love. when i take a bite all i get is the taste. (think about how food tastes when you pinch your nose)

but i am getting ahead of myself so let me explain. 'Taste' is the the senatorial input we get from out tongue, 'smell' is what we get from our nose. Combine these two, and you get 'flavor'. what most don't realize that at least 3/4 of the experience they get from eating is actually provided by their nose. pretty cool, huh? take away the nose and i am left with 1/4th of the eating experience. (poor poor christel....)

so with my little nose defect i can only taste sweet, salt, sour, and bitter. (this is all the tongue can do) there is something like 60,000 flavors and i get 4-5 tastes. (poor poor christel)

all green herbs taste like grass to me. no difference. hence when people eat my cooking "bland" comes to mind. i try to use spices but i have NO idea what tastes good with what. so i usually just go with "omit" than totally ruin the meal. oh i can taste salt and pepper and a few other non green herbs.

my mom told me when i was little "girls don't say curse words...you don't look pretty saying ugly words." (i was a good daughter and listened to my mom and this is why you will not hear potty language in my vocabulary) but my parents also told me "being a picky eater is not a good trait." so i have always thought i was being a good daughter again by liking all food. nope. not true. i like everything because so much of it tastes the same! i have not started realizing this until the past 4-5 years.

maybe you have never realized all candy is only scented of whatever it is suppose to be. (starburst, skittles) the "strawberry" flavor is not mixed in with the sugar. so all these sweet temptations all taste the same to me. good but the same. the only sugar candy which has a real distinct taste is Runts bananas. (that i can think of off the top of my head)

i never realized how lacking my eating experience was until my friends baby shower when we played the Baby Food game. we were blind folded and then we sampled baby food and had to guess what it was. most people knew what it was before the spoon was even in their mouths. (there are those gases and aromas) but when it was my turn i could not even tell if it was a veggie or fruit. i knew the texture but could not place what is was.

it turned out to be Pear. sad but true.

so what most veggies tastes the same me, i like fresh broccoli the most anyways.
so what i am ultra sensitive to spicy stuff, i still LOVE Mexican.
so what i can't tell you what kind of cheese is in my mouth, i still like cheese.
so what i can't tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi in a blind taste test, i drink diet anyways.
so what i really do not know what anything REALLY tastes like.....

i don't care because i don't know any better.

(don't feel sorry for me, it's all i know, i love food, just ask the scale)