The Taste of Happiness

I am continuing my exploration of happiness. How can the taste of food not make you happy? Food evokes memories of Sunday dinner, signature mac and cheese recipes, best dinners cooked by Mom, and favorite foods from a restaurant. Aren't you filled with happiness when you think of foods that are part of your life's landscape? 

For me it is Mom's homemade bread, Grandma Woolum's fried chicken, Grandma West's apple pies, Auntie Lila's Swiss Steak, sister Carol's Christmas Eve dinners from around the world, and my own Orange Marmalade Cake.  Tastes that always stay with me are the first cherries from Sherman Creek Orchard in July, our first ripe tomatoes from our garden, the first new peas and potatoes in cream sauce, and fresh peaches off the tree. 
I found this poem a few years ago when I was doing a unit on Happiness with my students. Food usually gets students thinking of memories also.

The Taste of Happiness

What's your favourite flavour
Your number one taste
Something so yummy 
You dare not let waste
What great food sensation
Salt, bitter, sour or sweet
Excites your tastebuds like crazy
Has everything else beat

If there was only one
You could not live without
What flavour would you choose
Be sure now, no doubt

Sometimes it's the simplest
Of foods that we crave
Bread and butter, tripe and onions
No, come on now behave

I'm talking 'bout

A freshly cut pineapple
To eat on the beach
Sun ripened strawberries
Or a freshly picked peach
Double choc chip ice cream
Awash With caramel sauce
Freshly made pepperoni pizza
Draped in mozzarella of course
Cool refreshing lemon sorbet
A hot Mexican chilli dish
Roasted salted cashew nuts
Sea bass, salmon, tuna fish
Olives stuffed or otherwise
Stilton, Camembert and Brie
Fritata topped with goats cheese
Spinach and ricotta Cannelloni

But,

If you really had to choose only one
You could undeniably not live without
What lip-smacking, palate-drooling flavour
Is irresistible beyond all doubt?

Pauline Oliver

What foods create memories of happiness for you?