Wednesday, November 19, 2008

It's Time for a Rant


Ok, I like to consider myself a pretty easy going guy.  Yeah some things can get me going, and when something gets me going I tend to be pretty passionate with my opinions.  I am sure many of you that know me know exactly what I am talking about.  Well, if I am going to go on a rant on this blog I guess that I should relate it to food, and lucky for us it is related.

As I have said before, I feed people.  Everyday when I am at work I make lunch.  Sometimes it is just lunch for two or so people, sometimes it is for a larger group.  Of course I encounter a wide range of palates.  Some people will eat just about anything.  (I think I am one of those), others will only eat the same thing that they have been eating since early childhood.  It is the palate, though, that falls somewhere in between these two extremes that drives me nuts.  

Of course, the person that refuses to eat any food besides what they have been eating their whole life, such as peanut butter, cheese, crackers and soda, does drive me nuts, you learn to dismiss them and know that you will never satisfy their hunger.  I am ok with that, I know it is their fault and they wouldn't know good food if it smacked them in the mouth.  It is the people that will eat a food, love it, and then find out that there is one particular ingredient in it (common ingredient at that) and then decide that it is disgusting.  One such ingredient is sour cream.  As I have talked about before, I will add cream to tomato sauce for a different creamier taste.  If I don't have heavy cream I will use sour cream.  Now let me tell you I make this meal all the time.  IT IS GOOD!!!  However, when one of the guys that has eaten the meal several times and liked it, notices that I put sour cream in it, he is all of a sudden disgusted and wont eat it.  Also, he hates Mayo.  Fine, lots of people do.  But the guy eats more ranch dressing than I drink water.  RANCH IS HALF MAYO!!!!!  He refuses to believe it.  It is the palate that thinks they can taste what they cannot taste and therefore refuse to eat something.

Does this make sense?  Another example maybe.  One of my favorite doughnuts is a sour cream doughnut.  If you have had one you would know that you cannot taste any sour cream at all.  If it wasn't called a sour cream doughnut you wouldn't know it had sour cream in it at all.  It just enhances the taste and makes it more moist.  Now, I could give this particular palate a sour cream doughnut and call it something like "Cheesecake" though it wouldn't taste like cheesecake (more on that in a minute) and he would LOVE it.  Though if he heard that it was called a sour cream doughnut, then all of a sudden it would be disgusting.  


All that to say that picky palates that don't really know what they are being picky about really annoy me.  Just eat the food, its good, there isn't anything that is going to kill you, its not like I am putting something like rattlesnake poison into a dish just to make it taste more....well whatever rattlesnake poison would taste like.

A final note.  I make cheesecakes every Christmas.  I try to sell some just to make some extra money during the holidays.  I have a friend that loves these cakes.  Last year he bought 3 from me and gave some as gifts.  If I told him that there was a little bit of sour cream in the cheesecakes I would never sell another one to him.  I hope he isn't reading this now....

Also, I hope that I have not offended anyone, if I have though, maybe you will take that offense and use it to grow a backbone and try some food that you may not usually try because you think it is "weird."  And when you find said food that you thought that you would hate and realize that you love it, call me and let me make it for you and some friends again.  I cater you know ;)

derek

2 comments:

Lynsey Grant said...

Annabel has a better palate than some of your friends

Chuck and Becka at REST said...

I like an equal opportunity offender...do you want to add any others to the list?