Why do we spend so much time, effort, and especially money, on food? Yes, taste rules supreme, but style and visual appeal also is expensive. French food is renown for being skimpy on quantity yet sensational to look at and savored. Food of that level is carefully prepared from the very best of materials, and using the very best culinary technicians. It's art you can eat. Still, why do we put so much effort into a basic body necessity? It's curious, don't you think?
I have a very limited sense of smell, and I've learned that much of the flavor of things is due to smell. Despite that issue, I still greatly enjoy food--a little too much actually. I only imagine what it must be like to fully savor exquisite French cuisine. And what if smells were entirely gone, would we still like food as much? I'm guessing yes.
Another thing funny to me is how foods don't change all that much. Sure, there are new combinations, but a steak is a steak now and was a steak centuries ago. I doubt salads will ever go away. And, what about candies? Chocolates? Those are an entire class of purely indulgent gastronomic marvels. We'll have soup forever, and breads, and everything else. Science fiction stories of the past had us thinking we'd be eating food cubes by this point. I am so very glad food never devolved. Happy eating.
- M
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