THE PHYSIOLOGY OF TASTE

Let us now cast a philosophical glance at the pleasure or pain of which taste may be the occasion .....
Brillat-Savarin.


You will develop a palate , a palate is a spot on your tongue where you remember and assign words to texture of tastes . Eating becomes a discipline , language obsessed , you will never simply eat food again .

Salt: your mouth waters itself .Flakes of salt, liquescent on contact .Pink salt from the Himalayas , matte grey clumps from Japan . The endless stream of kosher salt falling the cook's hand .
Salting the most important of enterprises , the food always requesting more , the tipping point fatal .


Sweet: granular , powdered , brown, slow like honey or molasses. The mouth coating sugars in
milk.
When we were wild , sugar intoxicated us , the first narcotic we craved and languished in .
Over time we have tamed it , refined , but the juice from  fresh sun ripened fruit runs like a flash flood .


Bitter :always a bit unanticipated , coffee , chocolate , rosemary , citrus rinds , wine.
When we were wild , it told us about poison .
Our mouth still hesitates at each new encounter , but we urge it forward , adapting and enjoying .


Terroir: we talk around it without identifying it .It's the character of the food , composed of the soil, the climate , the time of the year.
That you can taste the character is an idea , that is highly seductive .


Umami uni or sea urchin , anchovies , Parmesan , dry aged beef with a casing of mould .It is glutamate. They make MSG to mimic umami , it is the taste of ripeness that is about to ferment  .
It serves as a warning , but familiarity develops and that precipice of rot becomes the only flavour worth persuing .


Taste: is all about balance , the sour , the sweet ,the salty  and the bitter .
Your tongue is coded , a connoisseurship of taste , it is the way you deal with the world and your ability to relish the bitter , even crave it the way you do the sweet .