Notes on A Natural History of the Senses

Taste:

• the powerful social component associated with eating
• foods eaten symbolically:
• Catholic communion
• rice as the inspirational center of lives
• Jewish horseradish dish to symbolize tears of ancestors
• the intimacy of taste
• the meaning of taste as "trial" or "test"; food as thrill-seeking
• food and sex, food as pleasurable
• the delicacies of other cultures:
• Masai drink cow's blood

• Italians eat deep-fried songbirds
• Aztecs eat roasted dog
• "diversity is our delight" and the privilege of an array of foods
• the history and taboo of cannibalism pages 136-138
• New Guinea cannibalism/sex ritual
• "the tongue is like a kingdom divided into principalities according to sensory talent."
• salt, sour, sweet, bitter, others?
• negative effects on taste buds
• toothpaste breaks down phospholipids on taste buds, causing orange juice to taste bitter
• heredity of taste; mood and diet in relation to taste
• the relation of smell and taste
• "...in England during the eighteenth century... the idea arose that torturing an animal made its meat healthier and better tasting"
• eating the goose while it's still alive :( :( :( :( page 147
• cravings and emotional balance
• carbohydrates for Seasonal Affective Disorder
• sweets as rewards
• drifting from "real" taste and preferring artificiality
• discussion of specific tastes
• chocolate, vanilla, truffles, ginger
• taste makes the horror of killing to live palatable