Taste — Direct Perception — Part 1
To really taste food you must see through the world and its abstractions and see directly into the nature of the ingredients.
Know the tastes & textures and even intangible qualities — and the food becomes that much more perceivable (and delicious).
Put your mind on airplane mode then proceed to eat an immersive multi-course meal.
You don’t truly perceive a dish until you can trace back every taste to its respective ingredient. None of this is necessarily done consciously.
And when tastes combine you can detect the synthesized flavour but also the building blocks, all at the same time. Then the notes register forever in your memory, recallable.
As a kid you’d see food as an arcade. Every flavour & texture was new and exciting to you. You’d be immersed in the moment. Then you became an adult
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Every dish I eat, I look for my outlook to be refreshed and transformed. To see an ingredient in a whole new light. To notice a texture that has thus far remained unnoticed. To detect a new subtle note. I put my old self on the chopping block every time.
Part 2 here.