Karl:

>Because for cooked food you
>can say: What I want to eat will taste
>great. -- With raw food you can't. I tasted
>some of the german grashoppers and they
>were never delicious. With raw food I know
>how it will taste after I smelled it, but
>with insects I can never say.

I admit that I sometimes have surprising discoveries with raw food
(new tastes), but:

1] I was told in Montrame that you don't smell cassia -just taste it
(I don't understand why).

2] Some theories say that the body is not able to analyze the effects
of a food at the first time. It is only when that food has been
ingested and completely metabolized that the taste/smell, etc... have
been completely educated. Thus, I think that somewhere in our brain
there are informations about each food, so that you "know" more or
less if some food would be useful or not. Of course, you need some
imagination, and smelling directly is much more efficient.

   For instance, suppose you are in winter, you have been outside for
3 hours in the blizzard, and your kitchen isn't heated. How do you
think watermelon or acid, juicy fruits will taste?

   Other unrelated example: sometimes, I feel the need to
"equilibrate" between the various "fundamental" tastes, mostly between
sweet and bitter.


Best wishes,

Jean-Louis.