A taste of home

Why do we like the food that we like? Is it because it tastes good or because it’s the food that we grew up eating? Of course taste is subjective but it can’t be a coincidence that people from some cultures or parts of the world enjoy food that others find disgusting – and vice versa I’m sure.

I got a shock this week when I ate kimchi for the first time. Kimchi is a Korean dish made of vegetables and seasoning. The one I ate came in a dumpling and included fermented cabbage and onions. I couldn’t even get through half a dumpling. It was way too pungent for me. The funny thing is, one of my friends comes from a Korean family and eats kimchi almost every day – kimchi stew, kimchi soup, kimchi fried rice…

I think kimchi is disgusting. She thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Speaking of sliced bread, that’s one of the things that I grew up eating in Ireland that I crave all the time. Yes we have sliced bread here in the US, but it’s not the same. I miss Irish soda bread, creamy coleslaw and pickled beetroot – all things that I can’t buy here.

Fortunately there is a shop near my house called Rocket Fizz, in Old Town Pasadena, where I can get all the sweets I grew up eating. I think Cadbury’s milk chocolate tastes a hundred times better than American chocolate. But when I gave some of it to one of my US-born friends to try, he scrunched up his face and told me it wasn’t sweet enough.

I guess when it comes to taste buds, nurture and not nature is the determining factor.