Miracle Berries

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Over the holiday, my son, Jake, watched Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original with Gene Wilder) for the first time.  He thought it was good--if not a bit confusing at times. 

On Christmas Day, I experienced something that seemed like it came from the Wonka factory.  My brother-in-law, Bake, saw something on TV about Miracle Berries.  They are berries that are native to Western Africa and have a strange effect on your taste buds.

The claim is that these berries take away your ability to taste sour and bitter.  So Bake went on line and bought these pills that are made from the berries.  You suck on them and for about a half-hour, you can't taste sour or bitter.

I was the guinea pig, I guess.  No one else tried it, but I was game.  I just prayed that it wasn't half a year instead of a half and hour.

Miracle Berries in their raw form.

So I sucked on this little pill until it dissolved and then they started feeding me stuff.

The first thing was to try sour citrus (Bake came prepared).  I was skeptical--until I put the lemon in my mouth.  A very bizarre experience.  The lemon tasted like extremely sweet lemonade.  Not a trace of sour.  It was a little too sweet for me, but didn't taste too bad.  The lime was next and I didn't care for that very much--although lime is one of my favorite flavors.  It was sweet, but not as much as the lemon.  And the actual flavor of the lime seemed to be changed for the worse.  The grapefruit tasted like grapefruit that had a pile of sugar sprinkled on top of it. 

Next it was on to various things in my parents' fridge.

The pickle tasted very sweet--not sure I would have guessed it was a pickle if I didn't know it.  I don't like coffee at all, but I tried it for the sake of science.  I could handle that coffee since it basically tasted like water with the slightest coffee flavor at the end.  Dijon mustard tasted a little spicy and quite sweet.  Not too bad.  Ketchup was like licking a mouthful of red sugar.  Blech.

Apparently, the rage is to buy these pills and have tasting parties--where you get together with friends and just taste all sorts of things while under the spell of the Miracle Berry.  After trying it, I must admit that I'm kind of intrigued about what other things might taste like--beer, hot sauce, radish, horseradish, onion, etc.  So when's the party, Bake? 

There is a lot on line about this strange fruit--just search "Miracle Berry" and read more about it.  Then see if you can resist ordering some!

Everybody Nose

Have you ever had the unfortunate situation where you are eating a wonderful meal while you have a cold?  Your nose is all stopped up and you can't taste anything.  It's such a bummer.

That's because our perception of flavor is a combination of taste and smell.  I've heard about this experiment, but haven't tried it until today.  Hold your nose while eating something.  I just tried it with a piece of black licorice.  With my nose held, I feel like I'm chewing on a piece of plastic.  Barely any taste at all.  But as soon as I let go of my nose, the unmistakable taste of the licorice flowed up through my senses.  Try it--use a jelly bean or Skittle or something like that.  Go ahead, I'll wait....





Pretty cool, huh?

It just goes to show you how important our noses are when we're eating or cooking or shopping.  Don't be afraid to smell thing in the grocery store.  (A ripe pineapple, for example, should smell like a pineapple!  If it doesn't, choose another.)  In the kitchen, if your nose tells you that something might be burning, check it--it probably is.

Here's an interesting article on the subject that I ran across.  It's by a professional chef and really gives you an idea of how your nose can help you when cooking. 

That's just my two scents.