The Japanese have a word for a concept that English hasn't caught onto yet: Actually tasting a food that you've heard so much about, and presumably judging the food to see if it matches the hype. Raise your hand if you live in L.A. and have heard about an exotic-sounding food (i.e. shark-fin soup! alligator tacos!), usually with ethnic origins (dim-sum, Mediterranean, Italian sausage) that is ONLY AVAILABLE in a secluded area of the city that's hard to get to, there is always a line that forms, or you have to get there before a certain time of the day to have a chance to get it, or you have to get into an online raffle just to get a chance to purchase tickets (Actually, that's Hamilton, and I'm just bitter I'm 0 for 25 in attempts to win their lottery), so that it's almost difficult to actually taste the food.
MJ and I tried to get into Howlin' Rays (in Chinatown, mentioned before) to actually taste their hot chicken and see what the hype was about, the chicken was right there before our eyes, there were people literally digging their eager hands into the chicken and biting down into the hot spiciness or spicy hotness whatever you want it, it was so close we could touch it ourselves.........but so was a line curling out the door into the local plaza and approximately 2 hours long. No thanks.
Life is all about new experiences, which is what drives the travel industry, the social recreational sports industry (dodgeball, softball, kickball, etc.), the online dating industry, the TV industry, etc., etc., but when it comes to food people go CRAZY to actually sample a food. A lot of times I've heard so much about a food that everyone's been raving about.....the first bite goes in, I'm ready to praise it and enter a whole new world of gourmet ecstasy, to savor something from the ends of the earth, and then........it's not what I expected. Let's take a few more bites. Nope, still tastes pretty common.....is it me? Are my taste buds dulled? And just after you admit the ugly truth to yourself that the taste is not that great, you then have to be considerate to others who came with you on this Actual-tasting ride: "OH great job guys!" Or if they happen to have a confused look or disappointed look on their face, "I agree, not amazing." and out of relief you can commiserate with said friend and say you got bamboozled.
Of course, there are also seldom times I am AMAZED by a food that I've been waiting for for a long time. (Usually it has to do with Italian places, like EATALY in downtown Chicago that is as far away from my parents' cooking as a kid as possible). Those times that the tasting goes awesome, I begrudgingly turn to MJ and go, "you were right, we were justified to wait that long to get this." MJ tends to apprecitae foods much more and be impressed by the actual tasting more than me, which makes me wonder if my taste buds have dulled or I'm spoiled in terms of food.
English should definitely come up with a similar "actual-tasting of a food" term though, like "taste implementing" or "hype bursting" or "taste hopping," something catchy, and it's not exactly like "wine tasting" or "bar hopping" where you're just randomly sampling wines, it has to be tasting food you got hyped about for a while, where the finally knowing about what this food is is half the battle, almost more than getting to taste the (presumably delicious food).
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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