Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: TASTE (07/01/21)
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TITLE: No Solo Act | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
07/05/21 -
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ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Getting past the illusion is the first step. Embracing the result is the second. It takes two streams of input to dissect the prism of sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Flavor is a tasteful dance between tongue and nose.
The giggle above my shoulder startled me. “Can you imagine a nose and tongue dancing together?” Brittany asked. Her young teen pigtails fluttered in the thrust of a fan turned up high to cool us both. “Flavor is a tasteful dance between tongue and nose,” she quipped. “Why can’t they say that your nose and tongue work together to help you taste to the max?” She pointed at my doodles featuring the latest in summer styles. “You should have been a fashion designer or an illustrator. Which part of my tongue tastes pizza?”
I smirked. “Glad you like my taste in fashion. I’m trying to be a chef not a dreamer. Go look at your tongue in the mirror.”
Brittany sashayed across the living room to the mirror hanging on the entranceway closet door. She protruded her ice-cream licker and waggled it. “My teacher went to an acupuncturist and told us the doctor could tell the condition of her heart and her kidneys by examining her tongue. What am I looking for?”
“Do you see all those little bumps?” I asked. “They’re papillae. You have 10,000 taste buds that get replaced every couple of weeks. Each of those taste buds have little hairs called microvilli which send messages to your brain on what is in your mouth.”
Twirling like a ballerina across the floor, she plunked down beside me on the couch. “What’s my nose got to do with anything if it takes both?”
I gently nudged her nose with my index finger. “Your nose has olfactory receptors which have special cells. While you chew, the food releases chemicals that travel into your nose and stimulate more signals for your brain. Together, the signals from your microvilli and olfactory receptors form your brain’s interpretation of flavor.”
“Looks like you’ll pass your exam. Do you think God was trying to tell us something with all this?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, if it takes both your tongue and your nose to get the full flavor of something, do you think that’s why we need each other to show people what love tastes like? If just one of us could do it on our own we wouldn’t need anyone else.”
Who can argue with a headscratcher like that one?
“What if you added a bow at her waist?” Brittany piped up. She moved the culinary notes aside and flipped my notepad open. “Cool! This sketch rocks. A neon floor-length,” she oohed. “With an oversized boxy blazer. Nice. Trendy.” She snatched the pad onto her lap. “And a black bucket hat! Hey, we’ve got taste in this family. Can you make this?”
“I’m a chef but I have a guy friend who stitches stuff together.”
“Cool. My skinny jeans are so done. I need some wide-legged, high-waisted pants in floral.”
“Wait a minute!” I snatched the sketch pad back. “You want something like mom used to wear?” I hauled out an old scrapbook and flipped through it. Passing it to my little sister I pointed out a photo of mom on her honeymoon.
“Wow! Look at mom,” she said. “She was way ahead of her time. Where did she get so high fashion?”
‘Circle of life stuff,” I said. “One generation’s trash is another generation’s treasure. Mom’s a packrat so I bet half of this stuff is still up in the attic.”
“Taste and see that the Lord is good!” Brittany chirped. She thumped up the stairs and clumped around in the attic. I went back to studying and doodling. When my sister’s steps pounded down the stairs again, I looked up to see the living embodiment of my mother step out of the scrapbook.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I said, holding the photo up next to her. “If we flared the pants a little, boxed out the blouse and topped it off with a lemon-chiffon cap you’d be ready for the fashion magazines. I know just the shoes to set this off.”
“You’re in the wrong pursuit,” Brittany said. “God gives taste to show his design for you. Dance out the flavor. Like tongue and nose.”
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Isn't it interesting that fashion goes in cycles.