It's been a month since I first wrote about the texture-over-taste phenomenon and since then, I can't stop thinking about it. Cooper finds it fascinating, since his palate is so developed, that I can discern between different ingredients by the way they make my mouth feel. And he's not the only one. I've probably told twenty people about the article, usually in the course of explaining that while I can barely discern sweet from sour, my palate isn't totally useless.
This past weekend, though, I discovered just how lucky I am to have texture to fall back on. Sunday night, Alicia handed Cooper a banana pepper, picked fresh from her garden. He sniffed it and was blown away by the intensity of the smell. The pepper made its way around the table, with each person agreeing that it smelled great. Then it came to me.
I held it to my nose, ready for the onslaught. And...nothing. I held it closer. Still nothing. I literally had that pepper in my nose and I still couldn't smell a single thing. The next night, as I prepared to cook with the same pepper, I took a final sniff and I got a few notes of, well, fresh pepper. But that's it. No wild intensity. No wow.
A year and a half ago, when everyone and their brother - including me - was writing about supertasters, I wrote a post called "Thank God I'm Not a Supertaster" (and I meant it). Little did I know then that I am barely a taster. So am I the only non-tasting food blogger out there? I wonder.
Either way, I certainly am glad I've got texture to fall back on. Now let me get my hands on something carbonated and acidid - stat.
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