Flavour tripping - The Prep

I had the opportunity to work with MBerry (mberry.ca) and host my very own flavour tripping party featuring the Miracle Berry. This is the berry from West Africa that temporarly numbs your sour taste sensations into tasting only sweetness.  Miracle berries contain the glycoprotein, Miraculin, which coats the tongue blocking certain taste sensors.  Refer to my blog about the Miracle Berry for more details on how this works (http://thevongway.blogspot.com/2009/11/miracle-berry.html)! 

Needless to say - I was ecstatic about this opportunity and invited some of my favourite foodie friends for a secret rendezvouz!

I gave them each very vague details including date/ time and an ingredient to bring which were completely random especially if you had no idea what to expect.  I asked people to bring items like grainy mustards, to lemon sorbet, to tequila and salt and vinegar chips.  I was prepared to blow their mind and change the way they tasted for - for at least an hour!

Meanwhile I was busy planning out my menus from the traditional sour fruits - lemons, limes, grapefruits to home made dill pickles (thanks to Holly!), kimchi, and even more adventurous dishes such as jerk chicken wings, rapini which is a bitter green with tart cranberries with lemon juice sprinkled as well as chinese bitter melon.  This bitter melon was a staple while I was growing up and it is definitely an acquired taste.  It's strongly bitter in flavour and even in smell and usually used in stir fry.  I decided to fry it up with some really spicy hot peppers!

We also tried different types of dips including a wasabi dip, Sriracha (Thai spicy sauce), tamarind sauce which is very sweet and 2 different types of mustards! At my house, we also tried different types of vinegars - apple cider, sherry and balsamic, a salad with grape tomatoes, chevre and balsamic and all kinds of sour candies including sour pop rocks, war heads, and a sour spray!

For drinks we were going to sample Guinness beer, tequila, margaritas, and orange and grapefruit juices.  

I couldn't wait to see my friends reactions to the miracle berry and I am looking forward to more flavour tasting parties in the future!  I was very happy with the outcome and satisfied that my friends had a good experience!  For the taste experience - keep reading in the next few weeks as I will get into it...

Thanks to all my friends for keeping an open mind, a healthy and adventurous appetite and for trying all the different flavours even through the tummy aches, burning throats, rawness on the tongue, heartburn and burps!

And a big thanks to MBerry for a successful evening!