Sunday 29 June 2003

Pic of the day: I got a box of chocolates earlier this week. Not from one of my secret admirers, strangely enough, but from an elderly couple that I did some small favor. Still, chocolate is chocolate! Especially with vanilla flavor, without which it is simply not the same ...

Vanilla pleasures

I like vanilla, but I am not crazy for it. When I buy ice cream, I don't ever buy plain vanilla. I do like the taste of vanilla together with other things, though. Chocolate, for instance. Chocolate with vanilla is one of my favorite tastes. And many ice cream flavors improve with a dash of vanilla.

But vanilla is a more versatile substance than you might guess. A few years ago, I read (in Psychology Today, I believe) that overweight people could lose weight with vanilla patches. Whenever they felt a bit hungry, they would sniff the vanilla patch and feel better. This sounds kinda counter-intuitive, since vanilla is kinda mouth-watering. But it works for quite a number of people. I guess it probably works if, like me, you can have a box of chocolates standing around for days, eating only a few now and then. For every chocolate, I am less inclined to eat a new one. I know that for some it does not work like that: For each chocolate you want more, until you sick up. I am not sure how common this is in adults, but I guess vanilla patches won't help those. You could always try, though.

Speaking of mouth-watering, vanilla and cinnamon is known to be the ultimate perfume for women who want the attention of a man. Whether this is because of innate properties of those products or the happy childhood memories and feeling of "home", so far science has not answered. Some claim that vanilla heightens the mood in both men and women. I cannot say for sure myself. Some weeks, including the one just past, I wear a perfume with a strong scent of vanilla. ("Habit Rouge" by Guerlain.) It does not seem to attract uncontrollably amorous women; nor, I am happy to say, men. But I like the smell myself, and that is always something. Incidentally, this is a very strong fragrance and it is a good idea to apply it a bit before you go out so as to not totally dominate any room you're in. Of course it has many components beside vanilla, but that is the one I notice the most.

A main component of the vanilla flavor is made chemically these days, but for culinary uses natural vanilla is still the choice. It is a rich, complex and subtle taste for those old enough to take the time to taste their food before swallowing it. And at least in that part of life, I still have vanilla tastes!