Food Has Lost Its Flavour

July 31, 2007

When it comes to food losing its flavour, people usually come up with two reasons for this phenomenon. First, it's the overly dramatic "ever since he left me, food has lost its flavour, colours have become dull, yada yada yada". Well, Andrew left me but I'm not really that dramatic (bahaha just kidding, Andrew didn't leave me - sorry, not funny). Second, it's because you have a cold and your nose has been blocked up. Since flavour is a combination of taste and smell, when your nose is blocked up, odor-carrying molecules can't get in and therefore, reduce the flavour of your food. This summer has been one of the best when it comes to my allergies. For the most part, I've got it all under control. So that might not be it either.

I guess technically, all food hasn't lost its flavour. It's just that on two different occasions, food had an altered flavour.

The first time was when Andrew brought over a whole slew of desserts for me. There was a chocolate cake from Williams, milk (to go with the chocolate cake) and Smarties ice cream. The cake tasted really good, the milk tasted good but the ice cream tasted like bacon. Yes, people, I have tasted bacon ice cream and it's not that exciting. At first spoonful, I thought I was going crazy so I didn't say anything and kept eating. After a while, I told Andrew it tasted like bacon. After giving me that look, you know, the one people give you when they think you're crazy, he ate some too and confirmed that it did in fact taste like bacon.

So, weird flavour experience #1 - it wasn't just me. I suspect that somehow the nasty flavour seeped in because this tub of ice cream didn't have that piece of plastic covering the tub when we opened it (it usually does, doesn't it?). Probably didn't help that we got it from a convenience store either. So ew, I probably ate bad ice cream.

The second time was when I was over at Andrew's and we were eating chicken nuggets (yes, those nasty little toss-in-the-oven snacks from childhood). Usually, I cover these suckers with ketchup (because it tastes better that way) but for some reason, this time I didn't. I ate a couple and those tasted normal. But the third one I ate tasted like orange. What is up with that?

If anyone can tell me why I'm experiencing these weird flavour changes, please tell me.