Salsa verde, eaten cold

If you‘re familiar from past entries with my sensory history, you‘ll understand what a triumph in food-chaining it is for me to dip a corn chip in salsa verde. The idea with “food chaining” is to start with a food considered “safe” by the problem eater and then slowly introduce foods with a similar taste, temperature, or texture. The eater progresses from a food considered safe to the final “target” food. In this case, the food problem I’ve been addressing is an aversion to cold, clammy textures. No, this does not mean I am now desensitized to all foods that are cold and clammy. But I like to savor what feels, to me, like a moment of victory.

Making pizza at home

Spent our Friday evening making pizza at home. We used many of our favorite pizza ingredients: Olives! Two types of peppers! Zucchini! Chopped-up mushrooms! Broccoli! One thing notably absent from our masterpiece was any type of cheese. We love a pizza heaped with veggies, but we hated the bloated, even “icky” feeling that eating the cheese left us with. Lately, we’ve asked to “Hold the cheese” at the local pizzeria. The result is an even more flavorful presentation for all the other ingredients. Talk about “addition through subtraction!”

Bouchon olive and walnut batards

Olive batard from Bouchon Bakery

Caught up on correspondence that was interrupted by the northern California firestorm: a thank-you note for my receipt of a gift card to Bouchon Bakery in Yountville.

The gift card arrived just before the fires broke out and my family ended up being evacuated. During the aftermath of our return and subsequently moving into our own apartment, the card got temporarily overlooked.

Bouchon Bakery supplies fresh breads to the grocery store in Calistoga.

Since moving from Oregon back to California, briefly staying at the family homestead, I really enjoyed routine access to Bouchon’s olive and walnut batards.

The breads have a musky aroma and flavor, punctuated by the “nuggets of goodness” that are olives and walnuts. I look forward to using my gift card to purchase olive and walnut batards.

Smoothies mitigate difficulty eating fruits and vegetables

All my life, I’ve struggled with eating food that had the wrong taste, appearance, color or texture. In extreme duress, eating the “wrong” food could make me retch or gag.

More frequently, but perhaps more damaging, I faced condemnation and ridicule because of my limited diet.

Eating fruits and vegetables is where I particularly struggle. There’s something about this food that is difficult for me to handle.

Fortunately, we know that the way food is prepared can drastically change its “eatability.” When cut raw, tomatoes are grotesque and slimy. But what a difference to eat sun-dried tomatoes on pizza or in pasta, with a smooth creamy marinara sauce.
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Flavor Bible, essential resource for researching new foods

I rely on “food chaining” to help with my transition from foods that are familiar and comfortable, but what about those foods and ingredients that I know nothing about?

Tactile sensitivities related to food taste, temperature and texture, make trying new things difficult. As a risk-averse person who wants to know ahead-of-time if new foods are “safe” to try, I find the idea of The Flavor Bible to be very empowering.

Written by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, The Flavor Bible (Little, Brown and Company, 2008) offers an alphabetized listing of foods and ingredients with essential details about taste.

Page and Dornenburg explain that many factors go into the experience of flavor: these are taste, “mouthfeel” (temperature and texture), aroma and the “X Factor,” which they describe as the emotional response to food. “When we are present to what we are eating,” they say, “food has the power to affect our entire selves.”

Eating can be one of toughest challenges

Eating is easily the most difficult sensory task for this woman on the autism spectrum. Risking unfamiliar tastes and textures, trying new food takes time and fortitude.

El desayuno y el almuerzo gratis para niños este verano

(In Spanish)
Vía Santa Rosa escuelas de la ciudad: ​Los niños, 18 años y menores, comen el desayuno y el almuerzo gratis este verano.

También publicado en Cynthia Parkhill: Paralibrarian and Editor
Número de clasificación en el sistema Dewey: 463. En medios sociales: #EnEspanol


(En inglés)
Via Santa Rosa City Schools: Children, ages 18 and younger, eat free breakfast and lunch this summer.

Also posted to Cynthia Parkhill: Paralibrarian and Editor
Classification number in Dewey system: 463. On social media: #EnEspanol