The wonder of tastebuds
If you were trapped on a desert island and could only have one kind of food, any variety you wanted, what would it be?
Pizza! I never met a pizza I didn’t like. My favorite is sausage and pepperoni on a thin crust cooked in a wood-fired oven in very intense heat.
How about your second, third, fourth, or fifth choice? What would you request?
I just ate one of my top five choices. There is a particular homemade potato soup I could eat three meals a day. What makes it so good? This creamy soup combines heavy cream, lots of butter, celery salt and celery, salt, pepper, parsley, more heavy cream, more butter, and some good Russet potatoes. When this delicacy is created for me, I eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it’s gone. Then, I wish I had more.
I am presently cooking another of my top five culinary delights. The house is saturated with the smell of bacon, ham hocks, and onions boiling in a large black pot with pinto beans. It will simmer all day until, at the end of the process, I will create dumplings, big chewy chunks of pure deliciousness. When the soup is boiling, each morsel is carefully dropped into the caldron, where they cook just enough to be done on the outside but still chewy on the inside. Beans and dumplings were one of my mother’s meals which always came after eating a bone-in ham for Sunday lunch after church. I’ve never seen it cooked anywhere except by people in my family. Since my mother was pretty poor growing up, it was a cheap, hearty use of leftover ham, and beans have always been a cheap staple for those lacking funds for steaks and such things.
Another favorite is buttery, salty, fluffy Indiana popcorn. The aroma is intoxicating and takes me back to my youth when we entered the ornate Paramount theater. In those days, the butter was real, and all that salt made the soda super thirst quenching. We sat in the comfy seat that possessed a distinct odor and looked up at the ceiling, lit with twinkling lights like a starry sky. Box seats were on each side of the theater, and the long, velvet curtain looked like something directly from Broadway, New York. Some things you never forget. Then, Road Runner popped his head out of the Loony Toons logo, and Bugs Bunny was the opener for The Lone Ranger, or “The Duke.” Some fond memories one never forgets. By the way, Indiana is the largest popcorn-producing state in America. Orville Redenbacher got it right!
Coming in at fifth place, my palate has a tie between two meals. Fall is the season for chili, the rich, meaty, flavorful concoction with a kick and a cracker. I like hot Italian sausage matched with the hamburger to upscale the flavor. It is a little known fact that Jesus and His disciples consumed copious amounts of this healthy mixture while sitting around the evening campfires discussing who was the best fisherman of the bunch. I will refrain from discussing what happened all night afterward.
Holding its own in this contest is my breakfast casserole. Take a dozen eggs, a pound of breakfast sausage, two cans of mushroom soup, and layer it over Dave’s bread that has been broken up and slathered in butter, and you’ve got something. Top it all off with a large package of shredded cheddar spread generously across the morning delight, cook at 350 degrees for an hour or so, and viola, a healthy, warm treat to adorn your breakfast. Add a cup of java, half an Asiago bagel with butter and cream cheese, and some fresh-squeezed orange juice, and you’ve got a three-course start to the day all wrapped up in one delicious dish.
Many years ago, I was friends with a man who had suffered from brain cancer. Through a surgical procedure, part of his infected brain was removed. This piece of matter just happened to control his taste buds. He could not taste anything. Food was something to consume only to keep him alive. Bob derived no pleasure from eating, so he remained thin as a walking stick. His wife had to remind him to eat since there was nothing to trigger the desire, and he could easily go a day or two without even considering a meal.
I always felt sorry for this fine Christian man who, early in life, had even considered vocational ministry. Instead, he became a shoe salesman for as long as I knew him. Despite his frequent troubles, Bob always had a big smile on his face, and he loved corny jokes. His wife was blind, so they made quite the pair, and then a delightful son was born to them who became the joy of their lives. They both loved Jesus and were faithful workers in our church. But Bob’s illness finally returned, and I heard several years later that he had passed, as had his wife. I’ve lost track of his son.
I love to eat, and consuming too much food has been my constant nemesis. I seem to have finally conquered this demon, having lost nearly fifty pounds in the last fourteen months, but I know the enemy always lurks around the corner with a pizza in hand. Nevertheless, I continue to enjoy many kinds of food and try new dishes regularly. Mealtimes are often filled with good conversation, laughter, and sharing our lives.
Many significant events recorded in Scripture involve meals. God established numerous festivals each year, including banquets and unique foods. He tells us that there will one day be a “final” meal which is the great banquet of the lamb. Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding banquet, ensuring the guests had their fill of fine wine. When Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus, the Teacher invited himself to lunch with his new follower and the tax collector’s friends. Peter received a new lease on life at a breakfast Jesus hosted on the Galilee shores. The Master turned the Passover meal into a memorial of His love for us, and we call it The Lord’s Supper. Two of our Lord’s first-timers to witness Him alive were followers who invited him to dinner. When He broke bread at their dinner, their eyes were opened to behold the resurrected Messiah.
The fact that God gave us tastebuds so that we could not just eat to survive but for enjoyment and fellowship is an often-overlooked blessing. The next time you smell the aroma of a favorite dish, sit down with friends and family to enjoy it, then savor the flavor on your tongue, be sure to give thanks not only for the taste but that mealtimes provide us with time to gather and enjoy intimate moments with people we love and one’s we are we’ve just met.
Live Inspired!
Don Mark
