Taste for the Soul

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The readings for this week about food metaphors and how taste influences religion and vice versa got me thinking about how much our culture uses different phrases to enhance this relationship. 

"Those brownies were heavenly."
"That meal was divine."
"I love soul food"

All of these phrases are used both by the religious and the secular yet it is clear where the roots of these sayings are. 

Taste has long been involved in religious traditions and the argument can be made that these traditions even enhance the tastes of certain foods. 

Although I am not particularly religious, I imagine it feels similar to how egg nog is a highlight of Christmas-time, and turkey seems like a delicacy at Thanksgiving. I believe religious traditions make certain "average" foods (like bread at communion) seem special. 

While the definition of taste is "the sensation perceived in the mouth on contact with a substance" I think the taste that we experience encompasses much more than that. 

It seems like the flavor of salad is likely to always be quite similar. Yet how is it that a salad you grew in your garden and then eat surrounded by family tastes better than a salad you picked up at the store and ate by yourself? I don't necessarily have the answer, and maybe this thought is just a false perception and my own synesthesia of emotion but the idea that the homegrown salad with family is likely to actually taste better proves to me that there's another component, perhaps a divine one, at play when we eat.

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