Table of Contents
Aperitif: Ketchup Is the Perfect Food 1
1 Setting the Table: How All Taste Comes Back to the Tongue 5
What Sort of Music Do You Like? And How Useless Is That Question? 5
Embodied Cognition, or Why Warm Rooms Are Filled with Warm People 11
Are You Ready to Order? 15
Palate Cleanser: The Ultimate Taste Test 19
2 Sweet: The Taste of Innocence 23
Kawaii: The Sweet Society 26
Tasting Note: Coldplay 31
Cozies: Murder without Death 32
Bronies: Finding Sweet Solace 36
Tasting Note: Friends 43
Beanie Babies: Cultural Sugar Highs 44
Sweet Sounds 46
Tasting Note: The Notebook 51
Sweet Smarts 52
Palate Cleanser: A Brief and Painless History of Taste 55
3 Sour: The Taste of Rebellion 61
Sloche: Adolescence on Ice 65
Tasting Note: Mad Magazine 68
The Last Action Hero 69
Tasting Note: Indian A Jones 71
Sweet and Sour: Marvel's Magic Formula 72
Tasting Note: Blarping 74
Sour and Salty: The Taste of Punk 75
Palate Cleanser: The Wisdom and Foolishness of Crowds 79
4 Salty: The Taste of Experience 83
Salty Postcards and George Orwell 85
Tasting Note: True Detective 89
Salty Superheroes 90
Tasting Note: Drake and The Weeknd 92
Disco Won 94
Tasting Note: Trey Parker and MattStone 97
Salty-Sweet: So Wrong but So Right 98
Palate Cleanser: The Impossibility of Bad Taste 101
5 Bitter: The Taste of Repulsion 109
Coffee, Beer, and Cults of Bitterness 113
Tasting Note: Tim and Eric 119
Unwatchable Films 120
Tasting Note: Kanye West 122
When Bitter Is Better 123
Tasting Note: Futurist Cooking 126
Mr. Difficult 127
Bitter Art 129
Plate Cleanser: The Myth of Supertasters 133
6 Umami: The Indescribable Taste 139
Oddly Satisfying Norwegians, Part I: Karl Ove Knausgaard 142
Tasting Note: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games 148
Oddly Satisfying Norwegians, Part II: Slow TV 149
Tasting Note: John Hodgman 151
Martin Parr and the Mundane 152
Tasting Note: Gilmore Girls 156
The Interesting Secret of the Dull Men's Club 157
A Job You Can't Lose 159
Palate Cleanser: Aging Tastefully 165
7 Harmony: How to Put It All Together 169
Harmony in the Kitchen: Building a Balanced Dish 170
A Tasting Menu For The Connoisseur 171
Harmony in the Culture: Building a Balanced Artwork 173
A Tasting Menu For The Nostalgic 176
Everyone's a Curator: Planning Your Cultural Meal 176
A Tasting Menu For The Dabbler 179
Anyone's a Curator: The Problem of Too Many Cooks 180
A Tasting Menu For The Adventurer 185
Someone's a Curator: The Genius of Diana Vreeland 186
A Tasting Menu For The Minimalist 189
Something's a Curator: The Limits of Technology 190
A Tasting Menu For The Enthusiast 197
You're the Curator: Let's Do This 198
Acknowledgments 201
References 203
About the Author 227