Cheese Matters.
- Alice Seah
- Nov 7, 2015
- 3 min read
You know that feeling when you taste something odd? And then you hesitate for a good second, maybe raise one of your eyebrows, and then chew a few more times to 'reconfirm' that taste? Yeah... That just happened to me.
We are prone to how things, or food, I should say, taste. Similar to Pavlov's famous theory of classical conditioning that we learnt in Chapter 3: Learning and Memory, where our actions are formed from a range of stimulus and response, our perception of taste stays the same throughout our lifetime, because we have learnt that food taste the way they should. If you take a bite of a burger, you know you are going to taste that salty, juicy beef with the melted cheddar cheese, and that refreshing tomato and crispy lettuce; if you take a sip of a chocolate milkshake, you know you are going to taste that sweet, rich, creamy chocolate.
I love cooking and eating, and one of my favourite dishes is Spaghetti Aglio E Olio. It is a type of pasta (spaghetti tossed in olive oil and garlic, sometimes chili flakes; I usually add in seafood & mushrooms to make it fancy) originated from Napoli, Italy, and is one of the quickest and easiest dish to make, usually only takes about 10-15 minutes including prep and cook time. Just as it is other types of Italian pasta, garnish is usually added for the extra "oomp" factor. In this case, parmesan cheese and some parsley herbs.
Here's the story:
I usually have a container of parmesan cheese just for my pastas* but I ran out, and only had shredded cheddar cheese in the fridge.
『Parmesan Cheese; formally known as Parmigiano-Reggiano (ˌpɑrmɪˌdʒɑːnoʊ rɛˈdʒɑːnoʊ/)– made from unpasteurized cow's milk, is crystalline and dense, and has a fruity and nutty flavour.
Cheddar Cheese (ˈCHedər CHēz)– made from pasteurized cow's milk, is compact and crumbly, and has a creamy and sharp taste.』
Note: pasteurized is a processed of partial sterilization, involving heat treament, making it safe for consumption (New Oxford American Dictionary; American English, 2010 & 2013).
Despite knowing the differences in the taste of the two cheeses, I threw in a few shreds of cheddar cheese onto my plate of Aglio Olio, thinking it would do justice to being a parmesan substitute, since it's salty anyway. It melted on the warm, just-made pasta fresh out of the pan, and it looked oh-so-good. I was so excited (and hungry then), so I put a forkful of spaghetti into my mouth.
My facial expression changed, and my taste bud was immediately filled with the sharp, tangy, cheddar taste – it did not go well with the garlic, and tasted like a grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of throwing out the whole plate of food, I chewed down the spaghetti as fast as I could while drinking milk to wash away that unbalanced taste.
Next thing you know I was at the cheese aisle at Walmart grabbing a container of parmesan cheese.
*Note: Pasta here refers to all types (penne, spaghetti, fettucine, etc.) except macaroni and lasagna.
Sources:
Cheese.com. "Cheddar Cheese." http://www.cheese.com/cheddar/, accessed November 2015.
Cheese.com. "Parmesan Cheese." http://www.cheese.com/parmesan/, accessed November 2015.
McLeod, Saul. "Classical Conditioning." Simply Psychology, 2014, http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html, accessed November 2015.
Solomon, M., White, K., and Darren Dahl. Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, and Being, Sixth Canadian Edition. US: Pearson Canada, 2013.
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