HUM 6353 Creative Practice #4

Still exploring the essentials

So far I have explored sight, hearing and touch. This week I am thinking about taste. Our sense of taste is incredible. Each little taste bud on our tongue can pick up a different nuance of flavor. Some people prefer salty. Some like it sweet. Some want it spicy, while others dislike spice to the extreme. Some of our taste preferences come from our cultural upbringing. For example, many Caribbean cultures eat goat meat while Americans would not. People in countries south of the equator like very spicy foods while the British eat very bland foods. Southerners fry everything. The French cook with sauces. The Italians use a lot of tomatoes. Asian style cooking uses lots of vegetables and very little meat and serve rice at every meal. There are thousands of cookbooks dedicated to the various styles of cooking. Asian, Caribbean, French, Indian, Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern and more. And there are thousands of varieties of foods. Meats, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, grains.

My favorite tastes have always been in the fruit area. The watercolor painting above represents my love for the taste of fresh fruit. Berries, apples, pineapple, nectarines and peaches are among my most favorite. I would much rather have a bowl of berries than a piece of cake. And if I am going to have a bakery treat, I prefer a fruit pie to anything else. My mother said that when I was little, I wouldn't eat anything but fruit or cereal. That I disliked meat, which I still am not fond of. I never eat beef, rarely pork, except bacon, I think it is a fruit :). I will sometimes eat chicken or turkey. And I will eat most seafood, shrimp in particular, especially when it is fried!

I have maintained a mostly vegetarian diet since high school, when we read a story about the cow's point of view of going to the slaughter house. I have eaten no beef since then. While there were no pictures in the book, the writer's verbal description of the event was enough to repulse me for the rest of my life.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but I would also say that a writer's words can create a thousand images in an open mind.