)(( hannah mello ))(

... Training the Palate and the Palette ...

My housemate Sofi and I go half-sies on groceries. After the box of granola ran out, I bought a new bag at a new supermarket, of a different brand. Instead of being sugary lumps, it's more oat-y, simple, and definitely crunchless and sweetness-deprived.

This morning, I was sitting at our little kitchen table, with a mouthful of apples, soy milk and this granola when she came in, scooted out a nearby chair and waited for her cappuccino hot water to boil. She noticed the contents of my breakfast and we both agreed that we missed the crunch and the sweetness. I commented that maybe it's just time to train our palates to appreciate it...

It's one of life's great tragedies that we don't naturally find Good (as in capital G, good-for-your-body, good for your soul? :)... just kidding) food flavorful. We get used to whatever we're used to and we crave what we know. I know now, from experience, that the more I eat creative salads for lunchtime sustinance, the more I enjoy them-- and the more my body misses green things when it doesn't get them. That's a good thing, I think... but it's all training really. The discipline of learning to like and then eventually love and even crave what is best. Not completely on the topic, but close enough, are some words of C.S. Lewis-- 'Ease, safety and rest are good-- not best.' ... Food for thought. No pun intended. :)

Ah... so the opening days of 2007... and I find myself with palate (the tongue's taste faculty) and a palette (a painter's board of colors) in flux.

I've just returned to Italia after 18 days of literal wonder.
Paris for 10 days. Barcelona for 7. Berlin for 1.5.

My literal palate-- my sense of taste and flavor-- is being affected by the grandeur of European cooking. My literal palette-- since I paint from time to time-- is including fresh, and now-experienced colors as I run across them in European nature and art.

Cheers to a slough of posts following this one of the wonders that are finding me along the way.
It's 2007 baby. A whole year of newness is before us. Let's train our palates and palettes with the best of it all...

posted by )(( hannah mello ))( @ 5:57 AM