Any word on if this is a good chart or not? Interestingly, I do remember dreaming before waking up. It’s a little too far in the past to share the dream, but it had some interesting elements. I’m just unable to remember them. OH WELL.
So, what I really wanted to talk about this morning was my eating habits. I suspect this will be a reoccurring theme for this blog. People who know me know that I am very fussy. Fussy to a fault. When trying to decide on a restaurant to go to, it’s always a disaster if I’m coming along. I’d probably be happier if I didn’t have to eat anything at all.
Almost at odds with this, however, I do enjoy food. I like my food cooked well, with interesting flavors and good ingredients. I like to know what goes into my food, I like to know how it’s cooked. I want to be able to cook the foods I like most myself. Since the foods I like are somewhat limited, this is actually an achievable goal.
My mother went to culinary school before I was born, and she has always been very good at cooking. It’s really a shame I’m so fussy, because I don’t get to enjoy most of the foods she makes. My cousin also went to culinary school, and she told me about the concept of a supertaster.
I’m not 100% scientifically certain if I’m actually a supertaster, but it would make a lot of sense if I were. From the wiki article on this subject:
Specific food sensitivities
Although individual food preference for supertasters cannot be typified, documented examples for either lessened preference or consumption include:
- certain alcoholic beverages
- Brassica oleracea cultivars
- coffee
- grapefruit juice
- green tea
- spinach
- soy products
- carbonation in drinks such as in soda, beer, etc.
That list is very much in line with my food dislikes. The only way I’ll drink alcohol, coffee, and soda is if it is heavily diluted with some sort of sugar. I’ve never in my whole life been able to eat a brussel sprout or spinnach. I’m not particularly fond of any soy product (I don’t even like tofu unless it has been soaking in a soup to absorb it’s flavors). Oh and I don’t like most soups either.
I’m aware that the taste alone is not a good enough excuse for me not eating more of the foods above. There are other complex elements in this foodie equation. Mouth feel is another big factor in whether or not I’ll like a food. If it’s mushy, or mealy, or particularly fatty, I’m more likely to spit it out than swallow it. I don’t like any fish or other sea food. I have a strong dislike for meat I have to pick off a bone. The flavors alone do not justify my dislike for these foods, it has to be psychological.
I imagine some of it has to do with my upbringing. I have often been told the story of my mother trying to feed me vegetable baby food, only to spit it all out at her. She could only take so much of that before giving up, I suppose. I often hear stories from people who don’t share my finicky tastes about how their mothers put food in front of them and expected them to eat it–if they didn’t eat it, they didn’t eat. Not the case with me. Can I blame my parents for not wanting to starve me when I refused to eat the foods that were good for me?
And now that I’ve lived so long with these taste preferences, it’s even harder to change them. I’m far too set in my ways.
But it’s not too late. Maybe I can learn to like things. That will be part of the adventure that is this blog.
Later today: at lunch time, I plan on going to the Safeway near work to try and find something I can eat for lunch throughout the week. Sounds like an adventure already.
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