Flavor memories and mindful eating

This blog posting isn't about a recipe per se, but about the relationship between mindful eating and what I call "flavor memories." Indeed, in terms of advanced cooking, this idea is a very important to recognizing the individual flavors that make a food be "complex."

First, a brief definition of mindful eating: Mindful eating is the process of eating with intention - i.e., it is paying attention not just to what the food you are eating tastes like, but also what it smells like, looks like, feels like, and sounds like (yes! sounds like! many foods have a "sound" if you pay attention).

Mindful eating as a practice has been common historically in many other cultures, but, sadly, is rarely practiced in ours. You'd be amazed at the number of people who sit at a table or in front of the TV furiously shoving food into their mouth, and didn't take the time to even mildly enjoy the food. As a test, can you name off exactly all of the food you've eaten in the past 24 hours? Most people can't, and I bet you're one of them.

As an exercise, try the following: Take your favorite piece of fresh fruit and do following things:

• First, imagine where the fruit came from. Think of the ground it was grown in (what color is the dirt? Deep, rich brown?). What does the man/woman who grew it look like to you? How do you imagine them? Where is the field/orchard set? A forest? A huge orchard on a smooth plain? The Midwest? California? Chile? What do you think?
• Before you cut into it, feel the texture of the fruit. How would you describe it? Smooth? Waxy? Bumpy? Mushy?
• Next, describe the color of the fruit? What color is it? Is it vibrant? Dull? Shiny?
• Now, cut into the fruit with a sharp knife. How does the knife go through the fruit? Easily? Is force needed? Like a warm knife into butter?
• Now, don't eat it (yet). Take the piece of fruit and compare the exterior color to the interior color. Are they the same? How many different colors are there? How many different shades? Really examine the fruit.
• Next, close your eyes and smell the fruit. How does it smell? Fresh? Fruity? Can you "smell" the acidity? (e.g., a green apple). Bright? Describe it with words as precisely as you can.
• Now, with your eyes still closed, take a small bite, but don't swallow it yet. Chew it. Slowly. What does it feel like on your tongue? Again, what is the texture like? Pass the piece from the left to the right side of your mouth multiple times. Can you taste more than one flavor?
• Next, swallow, but continue to pay attention to the flavors at the back of your throat. I often find I discover an additional layer of flavor as I swallow.
• Finally, let the flavor linger in your mouth for two whole minutes. Does the flavor change? Often, as the acids in your saliva begins to break down the sugars in your mouth new flavors will emerge, after you've swallowed the food.
  

This is, for me, the epitome of mindful eating. And it is wonderful. I strongly encourage you to try it.

The reason I go on and on regarding mindful eating isn't just because it is a very interesting exercise that generally improves one's enjoyment of food, but also because it is a useful technique for developing what I call "flavor memories." To be clear, a flavor memory is not this: tasting a tomato salad, and being transported to my grandma's back porch on a hot summer's day when I was a young child. Rather, it is a distinct memory of the particular flavor(s) that make up a particular food item. E.g., what exactly does a strawberry taste like to you? Can you clearly recall the flavor without actually being in the presence of a strawberry? If you can, your mouth probably just started to water just a bit.

Mindful eating is useful to develop memories because it helps you remember what a given food item or dish actually tasted like. And, as mindful eating becomes more and more a part of your regular practice, developing flavor memories becomes easier.

Why would one want to develop flavor memories? When someone describes a wine as having "notes of cherry, plum, and oak" you won't have to look at them like they are crazy. Instead, you'll be able to taste the wine, pick out the individual flavors that you taste, and see if you agree. Indeed, having a large breadth of flavor memories is useful for eating any food that can be described as "complex" (e.g., any fermented product - cheeses, beer, vinegars, bread, good soy sauces, Thai fish sauce, etc...)

So, the next time you eat something, pay attention to how it tastes. This is a great way to really appreciate what you eat more.