 Somebody give me a shot.
Not a shot of whiskey or scotch like you might be thinking. I should have gone for that flu shot. It started with the sensation of spiders on my spine, and by nightfall the fever had reached full fervor. The first night my dreams were troubled and hit apex as I had dreams of being the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four. I woke the next morning in a pool of sweat, and firmly believed that I had burned the fever out… Oh how wrong I was.
I pulled myself through the next few days in a state of constant chills and sweats, finally the congestion set in and life became very fun for me. My taste buds became dull and deadened, and my appetite went into atrophied. Everything tasted like nothing. Cardboard may have had more to offer. Five days into this ordeal, I had my first craving for extra hot Singapore Rice Noodles from my favorite Chinese joint. It, of course, tasted like extra hot cardboard. Six days in, another craving, this time for German food. Sauer Kraut and Pork paired with Spaten Optimator (A great medium dark German beer). The First Mate swore that I did a good job preparing the meal, but again the taste buds just refused to obey. I gave up. Everything in me thought that I should be using this down time to review some wines, but it was indeed a ludicrous thought. It would have been a waste of juice. After a full nine days of swirling and sniffing Nyquil my sense of taste started to return. Staying Hydrated. Should this flu visit your door (and I pray it does not), My recommendation is to go buy some soup… Lots of it. Stay hydrated, Drink no good wine, Drink no good beer… Don’t bother with anything that you would expect to taste like food. This experience has been a vast reminder of how sensitive our taste buds are. When the distinct flavors of my favorite Chinese dish and Sauer Kraut can become reminiscent of paper products it is driven home just how subjective the whole concept of taste is. Try this experiment: Pick a wine any wine, and see for yourself. Do a simple online search for it, and see how many differing opinions there are on said wine. Who’s right and who’s wrong? I think it might be possible that everyone is right. What makes White Zin palatable to one person when it may be the bane of another’s existence? Without doing massive boring explanations into how and why our tastes buds work the way they do I’ll give an example. My father loves sweet wine (sweeter the better)... One possible reason for this is that he smoked since he was a teen, and smoking dulls the sense of taste. Another possible reason was his environment: He grew up on Irish cooking (not exactly known for its complexities). My Fathers taste’s lean toward the sweet and the hot: Which when you think about it often go pair quite well when mixed. (try adding chocolate to your chili sometime). Since my father gave up smoking cigarettes, and discovered the food network, he is now trying different food and wines and more importantly enjoying them. Taste buds can be trained. |
