I recently started a new blog with my friend Courtney entitled All The Tacos I Have Loved. It's a review site formed around our mutual love of tacos. It's pretty sparse so far because winter is a tough time for taco love. Which got me thinking, why do we love certain foods more than others and why do we enjoy them more at certain times of the year?
The first part of this tasty equation has to do with our biology. Our taste buds determine what flavors we detect and those flavors can trigger certain responses or cravings in our brain. As humans, it's thought that we are hard wired for fatty sweet stuff, foods with the most calories. This comes from a time when food was scarce and each meal had to count. Now, food is plentiful but the love of rich foods hasn't decreased for most of us. Tastes can also let us know when food can be dangerous. Sour tastes might indicate a food has gone bad and bitter tells us that something might be poisonous. Most of these signals are subconscious for us. I don't necessarily think to myself when I'm hungry "Oh I'm craving a Reuben right now because my body needs protein, iron and calcium." Although, it would help to know the reasons behind cravings so I could make better choices, I just want what I want when I want it.
That's where the second part of the equation comes in, experience. We may have a preference for salty foods or perhaps have a sweet tooth but with a glut of choices out there narrowing down food items even further is where our individuality comes in. For example, I like salty foods, but I don't like all of them. I don't even like every type of a specific food, say pretzels. I'll eat Utz's special dark pretzels till I'm sick but I wouldn't touch a Rold Gold even if I was starving. They're too buttery. They probably remind me of a time I had an Auntie Anne's pretzel that was soaked in what tasted like rancid butter. I don't think of that experience each time I think about Rold Gold, but I'm sure they're connected.
And that brings me to tacos. My mom would make them every once in a while when I was a kid and it was great every time she did. I could stuff my face with as many as I wanted. They were spicy and oily and crunchy. It was fun to sit together and make them one at a time, patiently waiting for someone to be done with cheese so I could load up on some. My brain is probably reminded of that every time I eat one. I can't fathom having a bad taco. I'll will pretty much eat every combination you can put together. I even have a box of frozen mini tacos from Trader Joe's in my fridge. They're pretty gross by taco standards but I love them anyway. My experiences eating together with my family and having such a good time is reason I enjoy tacos so much today. But why specific times of the year? It just doesn't feel right to eat a taco in the snow but what does it matter really? I think timing is another combination of biology and experience. Certain foods are in season at certain times of the year and although now we can get any food we want at the supermarket our bodies are probably accustom to eating seasonal foods. We also have different cravings at different times. When it's cold, I want something to fill me up and keep me warm, like stew. But I wouldn't want that in the summer. Tacos could fit that bill but I seem to want them more in the summer. That's probably experience. Having them as a party food when the weather's warm makes more sense to me than in the winter. Either way, I'm not going to turn down a good taco. Check the All The Tacos site for more reviews soon.
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