By Clyde

Some things leave a bad taste in your mouth. You don’t know it until it’s too late. You can’t just politely spit it out. You just have to swallow it.

But the next time you see it, you’ll think twice.

“We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, the onions,  and the garlick,” states Numbers 11:5

Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, but a little baking soda or Tums makes it stay down. Pepto-bismol pink is a color you don’t want to see twice.

With all the wonderful menu items at the ever-changing eateries in town, why would you order something you don’t like?

You might want to size up your waitress before you ask for their suggestion. When they get to the table with it, why do they ask “Who had this”when we have never seen it before or tasted the first bite?

Some things look tasty, or maybe it’s the garnish. Other people swear you can’t eat atmosphere, but can’t wait to go to the weirdest new place that has been made into a restaurant, mostly churches.

When is the last time you have drooled before you took the first bike? When is the last time you were really hungry? Pause here to reflect on world relief.

Now, back to the food buffet. The sampler is always good, because you can taste test and you don’t have to throw it all out. Do you recycle food?

What did one cannibal clown say to the other one?

Does this taste funny to you?

Taste can be sweet, sour, bitter or salty. There are too many reasons not to eat your freshly prepared, costly, well-presented dinner besides “you don’t like it.”

“Try it, you’ll like it, Mikey.” You might event develop a taste for it. Of course, if we hated brussel sprouts as a kid, we probably still do, or we had so many white beans we got “foundered” on them. We never had broccoli, plural of broccolo.

We can’t wait to try something new.

Numbers 11:7-8 says, “And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the colour of bdellium. And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat in a mortar, and baked it in pans and made cakes of it, and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.”

Try the wine tastings at Stephanie’s and Bob’s. Whiff the smell of fresh-baked bread at the Bambi Bakery, sizzling sesame seeds at Bangkok Garden, hickory smoke at Blackwelder’s, Richard’s or College “Q”, donuts and soft tastee freeze.

Remember the Candy Kitchen or Bill’s and go see Arturo’s Bean Roaster.

You can’t taste without smell.

Bacon may well be, for your money, the single best food item you ever put in your mouth. It’s crunchy and meaty, and you can’t ruin it. You can put it on anything, at home or at Wendy’s.

Wouldn’t you like to work in a test kitchen for fast food? You might get tired of the added ingredients, flavor buds, extracts and food color No. 2.

Some people have not taste in food or people. Or maybe they are just Yankees with not taste in redecorating patio homes in the sunny south.

Good taste is timeless and maybe you are born with it, or without it, as the case may be.

Look at vinyl wallpaper, nylon sheers with tie backs, pleated drapes, fondue day glow colors, TV trays, polka dots and ball fringe.

Shag rugs, muscle cars and bell bottoms from the 1970s — what were they thinking? Oh, that was us.

Thank God trends come and go. Hopefully, the throwaway society is winding down. What comes next may be just as damaging to the earth.

Your last meal should be your best. What would you choose? Maybe plain ol’ cornbread with a taste of butter and honey. Better yet, who would you choose to be with you to share your last meal? Think about that when you have your next dinner party. Oh, does the internet do that for you, too?

Who wants to sit around at home eating with TV and cellphones?

Breakfast, your first meal, should be an appetizer for the rest of the day. Go for it, don’t hold back.

Have you ever missed a meal? Or is it one continuous smorgasbord with nobody to wash the dishes. “Something tells me I’m into something good.” Yum.

Clyde lives in Salisbury.