What makes some foods taste delicious and others horrendous?

Hello kiddos,

This is Professor Mordy Maven, Thinker, Wonderer, and Figure-Outer of all things Science-ish. Which basically means that I try really hard to figure stuff out. I do the hard work so you don’t have to!

On Sunday, my sister decided to organize a Chopped competition. I was really excited because I love chopping things! Then she explained that it was actually a cooking competition to see who could make the best-tasting meal. Sigh.

I’m a natural competitor, though, so I started grabbing ingredients and got to work. For my meal, I chose a square white plate. I smeared chopped garlic over two caramel wafers and made a sandwich with dill pickle dip. I garnished it with salami.

My mother, who was the judge, took one look at my concoction and turned a very interesting shade of green.

“Um, Mordy,” she said, “that is quite a unique combination.”

“Thank you,” I said proudly. “I thought of all the foods I like and put them together.”

“Well,” she said. “It certainly looks… interesting.”