Why It Tastes Different Over There

Many Americans hold the optimistic and rather touching belief that anything that’s good somewhere else will be just as good here, in the United States. This is not necessarily so; food, for example, simply does not taste the same. Thus the traveling gourmet, who’s made a heck of a nuisance of himself separating European chefs from their recipes, and worked himself to a frazzle reproducing them in his kitchen with a zeal worthy of a longer-lasting cause, is heard to wail: “Why, oh why is this not what I ate on the banks of Lake Annecy or in Bologna? What did I do wrong?”

Chances are that he did nothing wrong, on the contrary. But the ingredients he had to work with, no matter how much money they cost, are not the same, and there is nothing anybody can do about that. The taste of food is determined by often very subtle differences, hidden ones, so let us begin at the beginning, with the water that is one of the basic ingredients of all foods. Mountain water from the Rockies, spring water in Sweden, reservoir water in Croton and Rhine water may all be water, but the flavor is different. Roman fountain water is a delight to drink, New York tap water horrid. Dublin beer is superlative, and so is the tea, because of the local water. With coffee, the water is less in evidence since the coffee flavor covers up a multitude of sins.

NH

About the Author

Nika Hazelton

Featured Tags

Many Americans hold the optimistic and rather touching belief that anything that’s good somewhere else will be just as good here, in the United States. This is not necessarily so; food, for example, simply does not taste the same. Thus the traveling gourmet, who’s made a heck of a nuisance of himself separating European chefs from their recipes, and worked himself to a frazzle reproducing them in his kitchen with a zeal worthy of a longer-lasting cause, is heard to wail: “Why, oh why is this not what I ate on the banks of Lake Annecy or in Bologna? What did I do wrong?”

Chances are that he did nothing wrong, on the contrary. But the ingredients he had to work with, no matter how much money they cost, are not the same, and there is nothing anybody can do about that. The taste of food is determined by often very subtle differences, hidden ones, so let us begin at the beginning, with the water that is one of the basic ingredients of all foods. Mountain water from the Rockies, spring water in Sweden, reservoir water in Croton and Rhine water may all be water, but the flavor is different. Roman fountain water is a delight to drink, New York tap water horrid. Dublin beer is superlative, and so is the tea, because of the local water. With coffee, the water is less in evidence since the coffee flavor covers up a multitude of sins.