Dear Friends,
Your five senses; sight, smell, hearing, taste, and feel, they are how we experience life and process our experiences. One thing we experience with all five senses is eating. The smell of bacon frying in a pan in the morning, the sweet smell as it fills your nostrils, the sound of it as it sizzles, the sight of those crisp strips sitting on your plate next to your eggs and potatoes, hot buttered biscuit, the taste of each succulent bite, and the feel, the texture of the food mixing and blending in your mouth. Family breakfast shared with the family at the kitchen table. Oh, the memories our senses bring to life as we think about how good the remaining crispy bacon strips will taste on toast with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. I can’t forget the smell of coffee perking, hearing the liquid perking “pop – pop pop pop – pop pop pop pop”. The taste, as you raise the cup to your lips, sipping the hot goodness. Sautéing onions and garlic, Italian gravy on the stove slow cooking all day. Burgers, steaks, ribs on a charcoal bar b q on a summer evening. How about when your mom would say “Stop running around I have a cake in the oven” and the smell of that sweet dessert made your mouth water as thoughts of how good that cake was going to taste, covered in icing and washing it down with a cold glass of fresh milk. Add a bowl of creamy ice cream and it just doesn’t get any better.
Oh, the memories we gather through our senses, how those memories are triggered allowing us to relive our treasured culinary experiences. Suddenly, breakfast is mass produced, multiple choice of flavored coffee that you choose and serve yourself in varying size take out cups. Maybe an individually wrapped donut, time permitting you might enjoy a micro waved breakfast sandwich. In fact, you don’t even need to get out of your car, just pull up to the large menu board with the tiny speaker and tell the person in the store what you want. Breakfast sandwich with a choice of bacon, sausage, with or without cheese, or your choice of veggie based meats. I still cannot describe what memory a broccoli burger being handed to me through a window would fill my senses should I make that choice, but right now the butcher has my hotel cut bacon, 80% ground beef, and several cuts of steak ready, and yes, I will be singing “Memories” as I go through the checkout line.