My oldest daughters favorite food that I cook, a comfort food for her is chicken stew. She love loves loves it. It is what she asks for every time she is sick. Well tonight I made her a big pot of it to make her feel better as she recovers from the flu. My chicken stew was shot down..

It wasn't the taste.. she eat 3 bowls and took some home with her for later.. But she did have complaints. Normally I only use white meat in my chicken stew and normally it is shred super fine and cooked to bits. This time, all I had was dark meat, and rather than shred it into superfine strings of white meat chicken throughout the pot, I didnt let it cook as long and this dark meat was chopped into cubes and larger chunks.. Her response was....


"Im disappointed... This isnt mama's chicken stew this is grandma;s and I dont like grandma's chicken stew.." well when I asked her why she had only one response... Hers isnt as pretty as yours.. I asked her well does it taste right, and she said it did, and that the flavors were spot on, but it just didnt "look" right.... Hmmmm....

Well this got me to thinking, and wondering just how much the visuals play a role in weather or not a food is enjoyable. It got me recalling a conversation the hubster and I had recently. Where I told food just hadnt been tasting right to me. If I havent mentioned it before let me say that I had cataract surgery just 3 days ago, and I had no idea my vision had changed so much. Colors.. I had lost them. I couldn't tell pink, from red, from orange, I couldnte tell you if a thing was dark greem dark blue, brown, or black.. So now I was wondering if that loss if taste in my food was a product.. or rather a symptom of my cataracts. Today I thought the food was amazingly good and it wasnt my sense of smell that was doing the trick since I am sinusy and the old sniffer is congested. It had to be the visuals. I thought the chicken stew was pretty darn sexy by the way...

This sparked a conversation in the house, where hubby said a smart thing.. As rare as that has been in the past it is becoming more common for him, or I am liking him and respecting his opinion more, or something... Well what he said was.. "the first impression you get or a person, a food, an art work, anything is.. the visual.." He is right,,, in any situation where you are not a blind person you can usually see the thing in question long before you can taste it, talk to it, smell it, or touch it...

Well, long story - short, what i learned today from my family is presentation does make a difference, and next time I make my daughter an ugly chicken stew I will also give her a blind fold... or feed her in the dark...