The beautiful brainlike substance filled the silver pot to the top.  Maria finally taught me how to make Sarmale, and I still wouldn’t be able to do it by myself. In fact, I love to eat food but I’m not very good at cooking myself. Although, for this Romanian dish that I’ve grown to love, I felt that I had to discover the process. We started by loosening the large bright green cabbage in boiling water with vinegar which she claimed was a special touch to add taste to the final product. Once the cabbage pieces were ready, we would clump the rice, meat, onions, green peppers and various seasoning into balls in our sticky palms and place them in the middle of the large leafs.  She then explained the process of folding the cabbage rolls so that the insides would in fact remain inside.  It was a difficult process similar to folding a burrito: a process with even more moving parts.  Only Maria’s large coarse working hands were able to create rolls packed tightly enough to continue cooking.  Throughout the process I took many pictures of the stuffing and cabbage and final product in the pot. Once I proudly sent them off to my friends, the response I received was surprising to me. They claimed it looked like brains!

Food consumption results in the change of the structure, function and mood in the brain. The brain functions best when fueled with high-quality foods that contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants because they are most nourishing. While eating healthy foods some are able to think more clearly, are more energized, and sometimes even experience greater happiness. Consequently, when the brain is deprived of quality nutrition one can develop mood swings and even disorders like depression. When a person eats a food that they enjoy the taste of, dopamine is released in the brain and an imprint is made of the memory of that feeling.  This results in people craving specific foods and not liking other foods.

While I frequently have cravings for meat, the idea of eating a goat makes me nauseous. During the summer of my sophomore year of high school, I went with my family to the La Porte County fair.  This was a tradition; we would go to the fair one time earlier in the week and then another time on the last day to bid on the goats for auction. Big corporations offer extremely over priced bids on 4H goats because the money used to buy the goats is considered a donation to the 4H clubs and a tax write off. Since these corporations do not actually want or need the goats, they then go straight to the slaughtering houses. The corporations were hungry coyotes feasting on innocent rabbits. We would pay the meat companies the actual price per pound of the goat to match the price that the meat would be sold for after the slaughtering. That year we chose two goats to buy from the meat companies. Unfortunately, the truck driver lacked interest in making this deal and our goats were hauled away to never be seen again.  Once the goats arrived at the stockyard we continued calling the owner of the company, but it was too late and they told us, “Once animals of all different types are put together in an area they contract diseases and are no longer allowed to be released.”  Strange isn’t it? We ingest meat that has contracted diseases. This is when my carnivorous self stopped eating red meat for a year.

The United States Department of Agriculture claims that they have implemented a procedure to prevent diseased animals from being used in the market, “Inspection program personnel are trained to look for abnormalities and signs that could indicate disease or health conditions that would prohibit the animal from entering the food supply.”  The meat inspectors look at the animal’s physical appearance to detect disease and also analyze the meat after post mortem solely on appearance. Looking like bystanders that fail to report a crime, they use their sight to decide whether the meat that will be packaged and sent across America is safe or contains sometimes life-threatening diseases. 

I’ve acquired a taste for strange foods that I eat now because my family loves food. As a child I was constantly forced to try new things, especially foods. I now find myself constantly chanting at my friends, “Don’t yuck my yum” while eating foods that I’ve loved since I was 5. My mom always says I have an extremely mature taste for food and that I also eat anything that is in front of me. I also have very strange cravings. When I’m sick with an upset stomach, the only meal that I will eat is lox on a bagel.  I do go through phases with seafood because of the odd texture and fishy taste, but I’ve always loved lox. When my teacher asked me what my favorite food was in 3rd grade, I would say capers  because I loved to eat them with lox. Filet mignon was another one of my favorite childhood foods.  Sure, I’d take a PB & J but my sisters allergic to peanut butter and adults don’t eat food like that.

The gene called TAS2R38 affects how people perceive bitterness, Allylglucosinolate.   This bitterness is a very strong taste in broccoli and other vegetables.  The more variant you are in this gene has correlation with overall vegetable consumption patterns.  Those with more variation in this gene tend to overlook the bitter taste of vegetables that those with less variation cannot. This results in some liking vegetables and others not whatsoever. Allylisothiocyanate is the compound that gives certain vegetables their pungent taste.  This compound is found in broccoli, wasabi and garlic. The compound can sometimes be too strong for people which can result in the disliking of the foods. Dimethyl sulfide gives many vegetables the sulfur, rotten-egg smell that can also turn people off when it comes time for eating. This makes sense because plants produce natural bitter pesticides to protect themselves from being eaten, and sometimes these substances are toxic. No wonder some humans still do not have any taste for these vegetables; although, the amount of natural pesticides in them are unable to harm anything bigger than a fly. 

Fortunately all of the animals on my farm were healthy which made them the perfect playmates. When I spent time with my friends in the city, I became bored very easily. My mom remembers me telling her that I had more fun with my friends’ parents than my friends. They just played with dolls and video games when I went to their houses.  On the farm, I was often sore from standing and grooming the thick magnetic burrs out of the horse's hair all morning. I’d drive the obnoxious yellow Argo around all day and pick sour green apples on the way to the big red barn. On most Saturdays, I washed the cats for hours in the old black buckets hanging from the structural beams. I wouldn’t see my family until around 6pm when they would call me back up to the house with a ringing dinner bell that I loved to hear. I looked forward to the delicious feast that awaited my arrival.