{"id":424,"date":"2022-12-15T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T22:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/a-question-of-taste\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T10:58:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T17:58:19","slug":"a-question-of-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/a-question-of-taste\/","title":{"rendered":"A Question of Taste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/12\/Taste_Top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/12\/Taste_Top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/12\/Taste_Top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2022\/12\/Taste_Top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  role=\"none\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Illustrations by Tatjana Junker for USC Dornsife Magazine\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=arts-and-culture\">Arts and Culture<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>A Question of Taste<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  From saut\u00e9ed grasshoppers to fusion food, USC Dornsife scholars use taste as a passport to explore diverse cultures, histories and identities.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Susan Bell<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">December 15, 2022<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div 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0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Sporting miniature chef\u2019s hats and blindfolds, my 4-year-old son and a dozen other under-fives at his Paris public preschool gathered excitedly around a long table covered with a cheerful red-and-white checked tablecloth. They were observing \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/frenchlibrary.org\/2021\/09\/28\/semaine-du-gout\/\">La Semaine du Go\u00fbt<\/a>,\u201d an annual week-long celebration of that most French of senses: taste. Set before them were different foods representing the five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory. The game was to sample each \u2014 without peeking \u2014 and correctly identify its taste.<\/p>\n<p>This national awakening of the senses through the education of the palette is a perfect example of the importance French culture places on taste. Nor is it a one-off exercise. This emphasis on the cultivation of taste continues throughout a French child\u2019s education. Each weekday, 7 million public school children receive a four-course, subsidized lunch that would be the envy of most adults worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Each meal features a different cheese course with a typical starter of artichoke hearts, lentil or beet salad. Main courses might include roast chicken with green beans or salmon lasagna with organic spinach while dessert is typically a healthy serving of fresh fruit. The foods many Americans associate with classic kids\u2019 fare \u2014 pizza, hamburgers and fish sticks \u2014 are served in French schools once a month at most. Thus, an entire nation grows up with an appreciation for healthy food and a palette trained to enjoy a wide variety of sophisticated flavors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A PASSPORT TO DIVERSITY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than 5,000 miles away in Los Angeles, USC Dornsife is taking the concept of taste as a teaching tool considerably further. <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1019388\">Michael Petitti<\/a>, associate professor (teaching) of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/the-writing-program\/\">writing<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/thematic-option\/\">Thematic Option<\/a> program, is one of several USC Dornsife scholars who use taste as a passport to explore multiple cultures \u2014 all without leaving L.A.<\/p>\n<p>His Maymester course \u201cFrom Pueblo to Postmates\u201d is inspired by the work of the late Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer renowned for his culinary explorations of the L.A. area and the historical unpacking through food of its past and the myriad diasporas that call it home.<\/p>\n<p>The course provides insights into L.A.\u2019s ethnic and cultural diversity, how that\u2019s expressed through taste, and how the city intersects and comes together through its culinary creativity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TAKEAWAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can map the history of L.A. through food,\u201d says Petitti. \u201cWe spend a lot of time in Boyle Heights, now a predominantly Latino area but which, like much of East L.A. during the early to mid-20th century, used to be a Jewish neighborhood with numerous Kosher restaurants and food stores.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Petitti broadens his students\u2019 palettes by taking them to \u201cEl Mercadito de Los Angeles,\u201d a Latino market where they taste \u201cnopales\u201d salsa with cactus and \u201cchicharron\u201d burrito \u2014 crispy, crunchy pork rinds cooked in a fiery chili sauce made with cactus and wrapped in a tortilla. They also try dried salsa garnished with pumpkin seeds and chili flakes and sample a new fusion of Lebanese and Mexican cuisine that serves up falafel made with chorizo.<\/p>\n<p>In the San Gabriel Valley \u2014 a Japanese and Mexican enclave for much of the early to mid-20th century and now inhabited by a Chinese immigrant diaspora \u2014 Petitti takes his students to eat authentic dim sum.<\/p>\n<p>In South L.A., students explore the prolific Mexican American and Latino food scene, eating fresh tamales and visiting a working farm in Compton \u2014 a city that was once L.A.\u2019s agrarian heart.<\/p>\n<p>Guest speakers, such as\u00a0 <em>Los Angeles Times <\/em>\u00a0columnist Gustavo Arellano, also provide expert insider views on the evolution of different areas of L.A.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the most rewarding aspects of this class is that many native Angelenos have taken it and say it opened their eyes to the city, its history, neighborhoods, cuisine, and how others live and experience it. Students discover new insights into the complexity and richness of L.A. through our readings, visits, and guest speakers, as well as their ethnographic interviews and final research projects. That nuanced, epiphanic experience of L.A. is the goal of the course,\u201d Petitti says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A RICH STEW<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another USC Dornsife scholar using taste as a lens to understand the city\u2019s complexities is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/span\/span-faculty-profile.cfm?Person_ID=1017450\">Sarah Portnoy<\/a>, professor (teaching) of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/latin-american-and-iberian-cultures\/about-us\/\">Spanish<\/a>, who has been teaching Latino food culture for 12 years. Her courses put students in touch with their senses while increasing their Spanish vocabulary and widening their knowledge and experience of Latino culture.<\/p>\n<p>Portnoy agrees with Gold\u2019s description of L.A. as \u201ca rich mosaic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe wealth of Mexican cuisine here is unparalleled in the United States,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have the largest population of Koreans anywhere outside of Seoul. We have Salvadorean, Guatemalan, Pakistani, Filipino and Japanese communities \u2014 among many others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This rich stew of overlapping cultures has provided the perfect springboard for the creation of fusion food, led by pioneers like Roy Choi, founder of the legendary Kogi food trucks, renowned for their Korean Mexican combos.<\/p>\n<p>To sample the vast array of flavors found in the city\u2019s Latino communities, Portnoy takes her students to visit restaurants and to meet chefs and street vendors.<\/p>\n<p>She encourages students to establish a sense of place and history as she prompts them to describe the tastes they encounter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI ask them to find out the story behind the restaurant and then to describe the neighborhood, what the place looks like and the diners, before talking about the dish, the colors, the key ingredients, the aromas and what they evoke. Then I ask them to find a metaphor for their experience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Portnoy extends this learning experience to her three-week Maymester course in Oaxaca, Mexico. There, she invites students to taste and describe such unfamiliar items as crunchy\u00a0\u201cchicatanas\u201d (ants), smoky mezcal and spicy salsas made from a variety of local chilies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FOOD, IDENTITY AND PLACE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Portnoy\u2019s scholarship focuses on food-centered life histories. Her work was rewarded this year with a more than half million-dollar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, shared with her teaching partner, to make a documentary series that explores culture and cuisine on both sides of the Mexico border.\u00a0 <em>Abuelitas <\/em> (Grandmothers) <em>on the Borderland <\/em>\u00a0will be filmed in L.A. and three other U.S. cities, as well as the grandmothers\u2019 Mexican towns of origin. Her partner in the project is Amara Aguilar, professor of journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size: 1.2rem\"><p>\u201cI asked each of the abuelitas \u2018What does this dish represent to you?\u2019 They all responded, \u2018Amor\u2019 (love).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier in 2022, Portnoy curated the museum exhibition \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/video\/see-the-la-museum-that-showcases-the-soul-of-mexican-cooking-150244421777\">Abuelita\u2019s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories<\/a>,\u201d which showcased the role traditional dishes played in the lives of 10 Mexican and Mexican American grandmothers living in L.A. and how they passed their culinary knowledge on to their children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>Comprising oral histories, kitchen artifacts and recipes, the exhibition also featured a documentary produced by Portnoy and filmed by USC Dornsife alumni about the grandmothers\u2019 relationships with food, identity and place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFood-centered life histories have the capacity to portray the voices and perspectives of women who have traditionally been ignored or marginalized,\u201d says Portnoy. \u201cThis project aims to amplify the voices of a group of indigenous \u201cmestiza\u201d (of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent), Mexican American and Afro Mexican grandmothers who have cooked, preserved, and passed on Mexican food culture, while creating communities and cultures that are unique to Southern California.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>THE TASTE OF LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Portnoy says the project aims to capture not only traditional recipes, but how food is woven through the fabric of the women\u2019s lives. Many of their stories are deeply moving, such as that of Maria Elena who recounts spending long hours selling tamales from a cart in Watts in South L.A. so she could feed her five young children.<\/p>\n<p>Another abuelita, Merced, is filmed preparing \u201cmole poblano\u201d from her Mexican home state of Pueblo. Merced has not been able to return to Mexico to see her children and parents for more than 20 years, but she says the taste of this thick, savory chocolate and chili sauce connects her to them \u2014 and particularly to her mother.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMerced can no longer touch her mother,\u201d Portnoy says, \u201cbut still feels viscerally connected to her by this dish she taught her to make as a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The documentary delivers an emotional punch: Food connects generations through tastes, recipes and traditions, but most importantly it is an act of love. \u201cI asked each of the abuelitas \u2018What does this dish represent to you?\u2019\u201d Portnoy says. \u201cThey all responded, \u2018Amor\u2019 (love).\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>TASTING THE PAST<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, taste can connect us to our family, our history and our homeland. But it can also serve as a passport that enables us to travel through time.<\/p>\n<p>A prime example is Petitti\u2019s favorite L.A. restaurant, The Musso and Frank Grill. Dripping in history, the legendary dining room was the storied haunt of literary heavyweights William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Hollywood greats Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe.<\/p>\n<p>But what Petitti loves most about the place is that it still serves throwbacks to high-end cuisine of the past such as liver and onions, avocado cocktail and jellied consomm\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can go there and eat the kind of meal that Fitzgerald might have eaten. You can actually taste the past, which I think is absolutely fascinating,\u201d Petitti says.<\/p>\n<p>A trip to Tito\u2019s Tacos for what is now \u2014 especially in L.A. \u2014 an outmoded version of a taco with its hard shell, ground beef, sliced or shredded cheddar cheese and iceberg lettuce, offers another path to explore the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe tend to look down our noses at this classic American taco because now we want a homemade tortilla with what we now consider \u2018authentic\u2019 ingredients, probably served from a food truck,\u201d Petitti says. But, he argues, it\u2019s important to understand that this taco was created in the early-to-mid 20th century because Mexican immigrants to Southern California didn\u2019t have easy access to the ingredients they would have had in their homeland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain, it\u2019s a passport to understanding a time and history and the ways that tastes adapt to circumstances,\u201d Petitti says.<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-image-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/a_question_of_taste_instoryb-3793.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<p><strong>BUGS \u2014 THE FOOD OF THE FUTURE?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If taste can transport us into the past, it can also project us into the future. Petitti thinks our culinary future will be based around alternative proteins, such as the \u201cchapulines\u201d \u2014 grasshoppers fried with chili and garlic and garnished with lime \u2014 that he takes his students to sample at \u201cLa Princesita\u201d market in East L.A.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey seem like a novelty item to many people, but they also could represent the future of food,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size: 1.2rem\"><p>\u201cThey (insects) seem like a novelty item to many people, but they also could represent the future of food.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Another way L.A. is exhibiting cutting edge practices around food, he says, is its leading role in popularizing sustainability and plant-based foods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think what L.A. does in terms of food is so innovative,\u201d Petitti says. \u201cLook at Choi \u2014 born in South Korea but raised in L.A., he\u2019s ostensibly a native son who takes Korean food and infuses it into L.A.\u2019s most iconic and celebrated food item, the taco. That kind of innovation, and the fact that it\u2019s affordable, represent L.A.\u2019s approach to taste. It\u2019s truly outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>THE BIOLOGY OF FOOD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Zoom from his home office,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/grayson-jaggers-phd\/\">Grayson Jaggers<\/a>, associate professor (teaching) of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bisc\/\">biological sciences<\/a>, points out the four large, black ceramic crocks proudly displayed on his bedroom mantelpiece. They contain the fermenting miso his students made last semester during his course \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/3061\/usc-dornsife-course-teaches-students-biology-of-food\/\">The Biology of Food<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to exploring microbiology through the process of fermentation, his students learn about different concepts of genetics, the nature of mutation, evolution and how that relates to the production of genetically modified organisms.<\/p>\n<p>One of Jaggers\u2019 goals is to give his students \u2014 the majority of whom are not science majors \u2014 a broader appreciation for biology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe main thing I want students to get out of laboratory exercises like these is to try out new things and not be afraid of them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HOW TASTE WORKS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jaggers points out that two elements are key to our perception of food: taste, of course, but also aroma. They are, he stresses, two very different things.<\/p>\n<p>Taste is detected by receptors on our tongue that can detect certain chemicals, such as sugar and salt, which we perceive as sweet and salty tastes. Sour tastes originate in acids within the food. Umami (savory) taste, comes from glutamate, an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of protein. Bitter tastes, engendered by a wider range of molecules, signal to us that something is potentially toxic. This is why we inherently don\u2019t like bitter foods, although bitterness can be an acquired taste.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if you say that something tastes sweet, that doesn\u2019t tell you about the flavor, which might be chocolate or vanilla,\u201d Jaggers says. \u201cFlavor comes from aroma, while the sweet taste comes from sugar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aroma in flavor is highly complex. Chocolate, for example, contains around 600 different molecules that work together to provide its flavor.<\/p>\n<p>Volatile flavor molecules within food can also be released into the air, enabling us to smell dill or mint, for instance, without tasting it. Once we chew these herbs, what we taste is a more intense version of what we were smelling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose same molecules that we were smelling are now being released into an area about the size of a postage stamp located in our nasal cavity,\u201d Jaggers says. \u201cSome 10 million different receptors in this area bind to those molecules, sending signals to the brain about flavor characteristics of that particular food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, how do we learn to recognize and identify flavors? Conveniently, that area connects to a region called the limbic system near the forefront of our brain associated with olfaction and long-term memory.<\/p>\n<p>Not surprising then that the taste of madeleines \u2014small French sponge cakes \u2014 unleashed such a torrent of childhood reminiscences for Marcel Proust in his seminal novel,\u00a0<em>In Search of Lost Time<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1008230\">Karen Tongson<\/a>\u2019s first question to students in her \u201cGender, Sexuality and Food Cultures\u201d Maymester class is to identify and discuss their \u201cProustian moment\u201d \u2014 that one taste that stands out in their life story.<\/p>\n<p>Her own Proustian moment, she says, is the Kentucky Fried Chicken she tried for the first time in Honolulu after moving there from the Philippines with her family at age 4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember being blown away by how delicious it was, but I also remember the melancholy I felt because it made me realize I was very far from home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>FINDING IDENTITY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tongson, chair and professor of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/genderstudies\/\">gender and sexuality studies<\/a>\u00a0and professor of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/engl\">English<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/ase\/\">American studies and ethnicity<\/a>, also uses L.A. as a laboratory to teach about subjects that we can look at through the lens of food and taste \u2014 including gender and identity.<\/p>\n<p>She argues that taste is how we formulate our sense of self. \u201cTaste extends across every realm of aesthetic experience,\u201d she says. \u201cSo much of who we are and how we define ourselves is routed through our experience of taste, whether it\u2019s food or how food aligns with our relationship to other aspects of our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tongson notes that the first way we\u2019re often introduced to each other \u2014 even before we may understand each other\u2019s language or culture \u2014 is through each other\u2019s food.<\/p>\n<p>Through food, she says, we also discover similarities that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n<p>Angelenos, for example, share an affinity for food on skewers. \u201cIf you work your way through Historic Filipino Town and down Temple towards Alvarado and into MacArthur Park, you\u2019ll find all sorts of foods being grilled on open fires and on skewers,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, even if food is at first an encounter with the other, it eventually becomes an encounter with ourselves, as we come to find these shared and intersecting ways that we experience and taste life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tongson says this is why taste is so important and so pleasurable to us \u2014 because it\u2019s a gateway to our identity, a way of understanding ourselves in relation to the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo taste is to have this profound and deeply tactile multisensory encounter,\u201d she says. \u201cThe concept of taste also affirms who we are and how we\u2019re perceived. It can be the gateway to a rich exploration of not only our personal histories, but of the places we live and the people who surround us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Illustrations by Tatjana Junker for USC Dornsife Magazine<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-image-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/a_question_of_taste_instoryc-3793.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From saut\u00e9ed grasshoppers to fusion food, USC Dornsife scholars use taste as a passport to explore diverse cultures, histories and identities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[75,96,109],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","tag-humanities","tag-natural-sciences","tag-usc-dornsife-magazine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Question of Taste<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/a-question-of-taste\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A 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