Week Word via Artsyville

Morning everyone!

I'm really intrigued with this little project I picked up from Aimee Dolich over at Artsyville, and really feel like the word for this week is an excellent one to invoke an emotional response in some way through the senses. As a scientist, I understand that flavor within the context of food or drink is primarily controlled through nasoreceptorial response, and not through the taste buds in the mouth since there is a limited amount of gustatory receptor areas of the tongue commonly described as sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and the new kid-on-the-block, umami.

Flavor is much more nuanced and complex than what can be recognized by five taste areas of the tongue, and this is totally about the nose!







Now I'm a girl who has a deep appreciation of flavorful food and libations in the best surroundings I can manage to find. I'm a self taught cook (I refused as a child to be part of "cooking" lessons by my mother in the kitchen with my sisters, choosing to go outside and do lawn work and car care with my dad), only really learning to care intensely for cuisine in the last 6-7 years. I revel in learning more about flavor profiles in cooking, how to bring dishes back from the brink that miss the mark on first preparation-generally solving problems by poking and prodding and adding a little something here and there. I've also learned to really appreciate the unique qualities of a well made draft beer-looking for clarity, color, amount and heft of foam, "legs", carbonation, odor, texture, taste, and of course, flavor.

So for the first way I would like to present my experience of "flavor", I decided to head over to my absolute favorite tiny little local cafe (it's a mile away from work-a perfect walk for me and the Tonka pup) and enjoy a creamy, styrian hops brewed, warm golden Triple Karmeliet Belgian Ale. It has a banana-vanilla flavor that matures into a citrus profile once it's aerated well. Drinking this beer is like laying naked on amazingly soft egyptian cotton high thread count sheets, or languidly floating in a warm watered swimming pool watching the summer sun dip below colorful umbrellas. It's delicious.

Pangaea Two Brew Cafe also has the the best paninis I've ever had. The crust on the bread is crunchy, toasted goodness with heirloom tomatoes, basil and handpulled mozzarella folded in between.

All of this loveliness served by an amazing staff on a quaint little patio that provides the perfect amount of shade and water bowl service for the dog. I love hanging out here and enjoying the neighborhood flavor, in all it's many iterations :)

Oh and one more addition to make this tasty afternoon complete; the cafe is located across the street from  one of the best ice cream parlors in the Sacramento region, having just celebrated their 90th birthday in May!

Thanks for this chance to stretch my little creative mind Aim's and looking forward to seeing other blogging friends of yours ideas on "flavor".

P.S. I'm probably going to do another post on this in a few hours once I have a chance to get my camera back from the husband. I wanted to focus in on a totally different description of the week word that might be interesting!