Fascinated by food

I think I was destined to love food. When I read books as a child, I was always fascinated by the food that the characters ate in books. There was this creepy sci-fi book that I remember nothing about, except that there were two kids on the run. Yet, I remember clearly that they ate smoked rabbit as they fled whatever they were fleeing from. Another book was called, A Boy and His Bike. I remember more about that book, but again I cannot forget how the boy had fish and chips at one point in the story. Funnily, I read only a tiny bit of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The only thing I remember about it is the ever famous Turkish Delight.

Anyways, the list goes on. I can't even count how many adventure books I read as a kid where food was involved, but I can probably tell you about the names of those foods and in what scenario the character was eating them. Those kosher corned beef sandwiches Jack Ryan ate in the Tom Clancy novel, The Hunt for Red October, sounded so good. It's just corned beef, but it sounded like it tasted great. There was one sci-fi adventure book that featured futuristic, flavored "food cubes". Even in the book, the food cubes tasted like crap. They were described as "tasteless mush". Yet somehow I really wanted to try food cubes! A character was eating some cubes with the flavor of "Virwat Duck". I will never forget that name. I really wanted to try "Virwat Duck" flavored food cubes.

I'll tell you right now that I really wanted to try smoked rabbit, and I wondered whether the newspaper enhanced the flavor of fish and chips. I wanted to see what salt and vinegar tasted like on top of fried battered cod and thick cut fries. Whenever it came to food, my imagination ran wild.

Nowadays it's a bit different. I base my imagination much more on experience. I know exactly what fish and chips tastes like because I've had it before. I have tried smoked rabbit, and I find the thought of Turkish Delight unappealing. Corned beef is just corned beef, but I will occasionally have a reuben sandwich. My taste buds are stimulated by aroma and flavor, and less by imagination. Here is where experience takes away from the bliss of ignorance.

I still look forward to the year 2045 when they come out with Virwat duck flavored food cubes. I'll be the first in line to buy them.