“So, apparently, some people put pineapples in salt water because it makes them taste sweeter.”
Thus began the period of experimentation.
“Really? Okay, fine. I’m going to get pineapples and pour salt all over them.” Mora got out of her seat. The rest of us looked at each other.
“Do you think she was serious…?”
Apparently, she was. Mora came back a few minutes later with a plate full of pineapple. She sat down and dumped some salt on an empty portion of her plate. She picked up a piece of pineapple and dipped it in the salt. Stuck it in her mouth, smacked her lips a little.
“I can’t taste any difference.”
“Maybe there isn’t enough salt,” someone suggested. Mora rolled her eyes and picked up the salt shaker again, this time dumping salt directly onto the pineapple.
“Wait! But I said they soak the pineapple in salt water,” protested Rebecca. “Not directly on the pineapple.”
Mora gave her an exasperated look. “Okay, fine,” she said, picking a piece of ice out of her water and rubbing it over the piece of pineapple. After waiting for the ice to melt a little and doing the same salt treatment to the other side of the pineapple slice, Mora deemed her experimental setup ready. She picked up an unsalted pineapple.
“Control,” she said, holding it up for everyone. She took a bite. Then it was time for the salty pineapple. Mora picked it up with both hands and looked at it for a second before sticking it in her mouth. Her expression changed from apprehension to disgust.
“Salty!” she exclaimed after swallowing. “Ew!”
“Here, let me try,” came a voice. With her eyes still tightly closed, mouth pursed, Mora slid the plate diagonally across the table to David. We watched as he dumped a generous amount of salt onto another piece of pineapple, then stuck it in his mouth. Throughout the process, he kept his expression serious and neutral. After chewing and swallowing, he looked over at Mora.
“Do you not taste that?!” she yelled out.
“Yeah, it’s salty,” agreed David, looking as if he hadn’t eaten anything particularly interesting. Mora looked disappointed that the salty pineapple had gotten so little response out of David. She got out of her chair again.
“When I asked the counselors why salt would make a pineapple sweet, they said it’s because you get more of a response from your taste buds. You know how when you eat something really sweet, like ice cream, and then you eat something that’s supposed to be sweet, like a strawberry, the strawberry won’t be sweet anymore? It’s kind of like that.”
With that explanation, she left for the ice cream machine. She came back with a small bowl of vanilla ice cream.
“I’m going to try this.”
This experiment went down similar to the previous one. Verdict: salt in ice cream makes salty ice cream, an unhappy Mora and a seemingly indifferent David. Things seemed to be ready to wind down, but not before Mora noticed the other condiments on the table. She picked up the pepper shaker and dumped some on the ice cream. Unfortunately, like the salt, results weren’t very favorable. David volunteered to try the pepper as well, and again seemed unaffected. Salt and pepper taken care of, only the bottle of ketchup remained on the table untouched. Mora looked at the bottle of Heinz for a while, contemplating on whether she should try it. Curiosity got the better of her, and she uncapped the ketchup. Squirted a small amount of it into the ice cream. The rest of us sitting around her recoiled slightly at the sound of the ketchup coming out the bottle. No one else looked remotely willing to try ketchup with ice cream. With the exception of David, of course, who was eyeing the mixture with interest.
“Oh my god, this is disgusting,” Mora said as she turned the ice cream over the ketchup a few times. She took up a spoonful of ice cream and ketchup. It was barely in her mouth when she made a face and reached for a napkin, spitting the ketchup and ice cream back out.
“Ew! Ew! Ew!” she exclaimed. “I had ice cream, and then the ketchup all at once!”
David beckoned for the bowl with his finger. Mora looked surprised that he wanted to try it.
“Really?” she asked as she slid the bowl over to him. He nodded once, then took up the bottle of ketchup on his side of the table, squirting a very generous amount onto the ice cream. He mixed it around a bit, then took a spoonful. We watched apprehensively as he put it to his lips. Once again, he kept his neutral expression as he swallowed and put his spoon down.
“How do you do that?!” Mora squealed. “It’s so disgusting!” She left the table once again, this time to get some unaltered food for actual dessert.
“I win,” said David when she came back with a slice of vegan carrot cake.
Now that was something Mora couldn’t take.
“Oh my god. NO. I can’t lose this! I already lost to – No! I have to win this!” she yelled. She pointed to the carrot cake. “You choose what to put on this. If I eat it, then I win,” she said. At first, David refused, but eventually agreed to take the plate. He had a smile on his face as he left to wander the cafeteria. It was only after he left that Mora seemed to fully realize what she had gotten herself into.
“Oh no. Oh no. I’m scared now. I don’t know what he’ll put on it. It’ll be strawberry sauce. Yeah. Strawberry sauce,” she said, trying to reassure herself. David was gone for a few minutes.
“Where is he?!” Mora was getting more nervous by the second. We were all starting to wonder where he had gone off to. After a few more minutes, Mora had had enough. She went over to Corey to tell him of her predicament and to see if David had asked him for ideas. Corey was laughing when Mora led him back to our table. He denied helping David, but decided to stick around to see how things would turn out.
When David came back, the carrot cake was unrecognizable. It was covered in different colored sauces, much of which looked spicy. A lemon seed was on the side of the plate. Mora took one look at the mess and covered her face with her hands and groaned. All the same, she was determined to win her challenge. We all watched as she eyed the plate and poked the used-to-be-cake with her fork, unsure of what to do. Eventually she gained the courage to take a forkful and stick it to her mouth. Before it could go all the way in, she slammed it back down onto the plate, spluttering.
“Disgusting!” she cried, grabbing a napkin to remove the taste from her mouth. David and Corey laughed, while everyone else looked mildly disgusted and quite sorry that Mora had put herself through such torture. After she had gotten rid of most of the taste, comparing it to the taste of vomit, Mora slid the plate over to David.
“You eat it.”
Corey looked delighted at this turn of events. David took the plate. He asked for a clean fork, and went to get a glass of soda. We watched as he, in his customary calm manner, cut a piece of the cake with the fork. He covered its surface more thoroughly with the sauces at Mora’s protest, and stuck it all in his mouth. And swallowed. Mora was amazed.
“How did you DO THAT?!” The rest of us wondered as well. David just shrugged.
“What did it taste like?” Grace asked him.
“Well, of course it’s disgusting,” David replied, “it’s just that I still ate it.”
Mora looked very unhappy, but fortunately, had had enough and didn’t give another attempt. She asked David exactly what he had put on it. Sour cream, orange juice, lemon juice, green salsa, hot sauce, and salt, came the answer. Corey admitted to having helped with ideas. Mora seemed disappointed with herself, and found it hard to admit defeat, though she did so in the end.
“I don’t respect you anymore,” she told David. He just smiled.
With that, it was time to put our plates and cups to the dish return.
Just another typical day at the Dining Commons.
No comments:
Post a Comment