Sunday, July 28, 2013

Taste, taste, baby...

Hey, hope everyone's enjoying their weekend.

I LIVE for my weekends - grad school is grad school, but the weekends are a time for me to decompress from the stresses of the week and enjoy some time with MOH, my pets, and get some me time. This weekend's adventures entailed driving MOH to different comic book stores in the Orange County region to find his precious Green Arrow comics.



The highs of Comic-Con have not worn off for us, and MOH's decided to get back into comic collecting. I don't mind driving MOH around, and even feeding into his new hobby (it's really cute when you get to experience how excited someone can get over comics, or in general with something they're passionate about, and MOH is no different). Everything aside, one great thing about running around town, especially to places we don't go to often, is to try new places to eat! We've heard so many great things about this little bakery called Cream Pan in Tustin, and it did not disappoint.

We decided to order the strawberry croissant because there's so much YELP-mania on it, and for good reason. What makes a great croissant? For me, a croissant must be flaky to the bite, buttery and lightly salted. This croissant, per Chandler Bing, "was perfection." Everything about it was delicious. You got the fat croissant, creamy (yet light) sweet custard, and tart strawberries to cut into the custard and croissant really well. At the register, there was a man before me that ordered two plastic trays of the strawberry croissants (they're a little smaller than the palm of your hand), with each tray containing maybe 10 croissants. I'll admit, I was a bit judge-y but after biting into my croissant in the car and scarfing it all before leaving the parking lot, I'm not passing judgement anymore!

Probably the best food on anyone's list of must-eats is composed of food that has managed to tickle a combination of our taste buds, whether it's a sea salted caramel yogurt, apple-bacon donuts, or even the nostalgic warheads! 

Fluorescent taste buds (Tizzano et al., 2008, BMC Neuroscience)
Taste buds don't just let us enjoy flavor, but initiate our gut for absorption of food (including the release of food-specific digestive enzymes and trigger our gut to make reflexive contractions). So how exactly do we sense taste? Well, remember how I told you taste buds have numerous cells packed together? Our taste buds contain multiple cell types (at least 4 known cell types). Each cell type is different in its own way, and has different receptors, or binding sites for food molecules to bind onto. Think of it like a lock and key fit, as in a sweet compound binds onto the sweet receptor in the taste bud. This method of detecting flavor is how we sense sweet, bitter and umami - salty and bitter molecules have the ability to pass straight through the cell for flavor detection, and thus, bypasses the need to bind onto a receptor.

Breakdown of the different types of cells that compile our taste bud! Each taste bud contains various different cells that have receptors for the 5 flavors (from Chaudhari and Roper, 2010)

After flavor molecules hit the taste buds, this activation leads to stimulation of gustatory nerves that send the food information to the brain for further processing.

Adapted from Merck Manual.com

So next time you're getting your foodie on, take time to appreciate just how delicious food can be! I know I'll be enjoying MOH's sea salted brownies! It's something that we definitely take for granted, especially considering how taste buds don't have the ability to regenerate as much when we get older.

Until next time, happy eating everyone!



The science in this blog comes from a comprehensive review of taste buds and how they signal taste information to the brain: Chaudhari and Roper, 2010, The cell biology of taste (Journal of Cell Biology).



Saturday, July 20, 2013

Comic-con withdrawal

I'm back from Comi-Con and I'm on withdrawal. MOH and I went to our very first Comic-Con (and certainly not our last!) and we had tons of fun. We were among the rare few attendees who were unable to go for the entire 4 day stint, as we just had passes for 3/4 days.



Comic-con is an international convention that revolves around panels, discussions, and exhibits all related to movies and TV shows, comics, and games. This year, Comic-con highlighted new games for PlayStation4 and Xbox1, and held panels featuring new TV show line-ups (the JJ Abrams robotics-crime drama, Almost Human), and long-time favorites (Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, and Game of Thrones). Did I mention you also get to pick the brains of producers behind some of the greatest movies/series?!?! Besides the exciting panels available, there are tons of exhibits featuring cool swag designed to make even the most composed person geek and spaz out. My personal favorite was the exhibit showing to-scale figurines of Star Wars, DC / Marvel  comic characters, and even JRR Tolkien's characters come to life.


Needless to say, I had a great time. I'm counting the days until I can go again (54 weeks and counting!). Besides the convention, another great thing to celebrate about going to San Diego was to try the infamous Extraordinary Desserts! This place did not disappoint.

We had drove down to San Diego, were running on low fuel and had no dinner. Regardless, we met up with some old friends in college who lived in Mira Mesa for a late night dessert. This restaurant doesn't just serve dessert, but go for a sweet treat. Don't get salad, or a panini - go here for the creme brulee, the chocolate cake, the passion fruit cheesecake. Seriously - get something sweet! I can't comment on the entrees or apps, but this place is called Extraordinary Desserts for a reason!



I ordered this decadent cake called The Viking. It has a chocolate creme brulee and milk chocolate cream underneath chocolate cake layers. On top, you have a chocolate almond praline to add a nice bite of crunch. This cake did not disappoint my sweet tooth. I'm a major chocolate-aficionado and love chocolate no matter what type of mood I'm in. Sad? Eat a double chocolate cookie. Mad? Eat chocolate chips from the bag (MOH has extra chocolate chips on hand for this occasion). Happy? Try for a kit kat if on hand. I eat chocolate every day. This cake is catered to the chocolate lover. To anyone who likes eating chocolate, don't order this. It's very rich. It's the by-product of if a brownie, german chocolate cake, and creme brulee got in a love triangle. A little bit risque, but soooo good. Everything about this cake was good. The topping of chocolate creme brulee had this great bite. The frosting was so rich and thick and had a great dark chocolate taste. The cake layers itself were so moist and melted in my mouth. Finally, the chocolate creme tasted like a chocolate mousse and just slid down my throat, coating this lovely chocolate layer for me to enjoy the whole way through. Really good. If you're not into chocolate, I'd still definitely recommend giving this place a try at least once. I've heard they have a dessert buffet and their other desserts are really wonderful as well. MOH had the creme brulee and let out a food-gasm upon the first bite. I tried it myself and it was quite tasty. 

Anyway, hope everyone's having a great weekend! Apologies if you were expecting a science-driven blog, but I'm still on cloud nine from Comic-Con. Be on the lookout for a blog on the taste buds next week!

Happy eating all!


Sunday, July 14, 2013

Autobiographical odor memories - Kit Kats at the beach

Ever reminisce back on your childhood and wish you could be a kid again?

I was at the beach recently, enjoying a warm summer evening with MOH and my sister and had a wonderful time. The air was salty, the waves were wildly crashing against the sandy shore, and my favorite part - we came just in time to see the sunset. 

When I came to my school for interview weekend, I remember asking a grad student how they liked living by the beach. I was a little bummed when the grad student said without hesitation, "you know, I've only been to the beach maybe 3 times throughout my whole grad school career... guess you don't really have time or need to go!" I was so surprised and figured maybe grad school was going to be too busy to take time to enjoy the ocean air. WRONG. I can't tell you how many times I've run away to the beach after a long day at lab, after seeing negative data that I busted working my ass off for, or just because I felt like collecting shells and eroded rocks for my little ocean collection. Maybe it's just me, but there's nothing that beats a day or even early evening spent at the beach. I'm secretly hoping that I can spend the rest of my life living off the beach - as in have my house so close to the ocean that the sand hits my feet once you step outside the house. Wishful thinking, probably borderline delusional dreaming considering the extravagant salary of a grad student! 



I think one more reason (of many) why I love the beach so much is because a majority of my best childhood memories happened at the beach. When I was little, much of my extended family lived near Monterey in a little town called Seaside. My family would regularly take weekend trips to visit my cousins, aunts, and uncles. We started this tradition where we would bring duck to make bun mang (bamboo duck noodle soup), and every weekend trip would end with a great day at the beach. I think my cousins thought the beach was overrated (they lived so close to it), but for me, every trip to Seaside wasn't complete without a trip to the beach, usually to Lover's Point (beautiful place, seagulls and squirrels are a bit too friendly, but so scenic and peaceful).



Whenever I think back on these trips, I always remember what I loved to eat whenever taking a trip to the beach - Kit Kats. Kit Kats taste amazing after jumping around in the waves. Your body is all salty and wet from diving into the waves, and eating Kit Kats go so good with it. It's similar to sea salt coated dark chocolate - that mixture of salty, sweet is a combination that anyone can appreciate. Try sea salt coffee? Or brownies dusted in kosher salt? Now, whenever I see Kit Kats, or even eat chocolate, I think back on those memories of being a kid, rocking a one piece Mickey Mouse suit with no shame, and strutting through the waters and sands without a care in the world, scarfing down those heavenly pieces of wafer chocolate-y goodness. 

So that brings us to this week's science content - are odor-mediated autobiographical memories even real? And are they as strong in our memories like other types of autobiographical memories? I was quite curious about this so I did a bit of digging and found some cool info tidbits on this good review (Larson and Willander, 2009). 

Before we dive into odor-autobiographical memories, let's just review a little on what's known about autobiographical memories. Autobiographical memories fall under the "episodic" memory category, and is a special type of memory in which you can actively recall the time or date when a particular memory happened. Things like when was your wedding, when did you finish high school, or how old were you when you got your first ticket? In terms of how far back you can recall autobiographical memories, researchers normally look at memory recall in terms of blocks of years, or intervals and have classified three main time intervals of autobiographical memory recall - the childhood amnesia, the "bump", and recency. 

Childhood amnesia refers to how difficult it is to remember many childhood memories, like when you finally learned how to ride a bike (unless you're MOH, who learned in college - sorry MOH!); the "bump" refers to how much easier it is remember key events between the ages of 10-30 years old, like when you met your first love; and finally, the recency refers to the ease of remembering more recent events readily compared to things that happened in the past. When you think about it, these three time periods make sense. I have the most difficulty remembering exact days when I tormented my sister, or when I ate dirt - in fact, these memories are mostly vague at best, or only remembered because of what my parents tell me. And of course, the most recent memories are easiest to recall - I can think back on what I did last week far easier than what I did three years ago (vaguely remember thinking going to grad school was going to be amazing and I was going to be a superstar - HA, yeah OK). Most of these studies looking at autobiographical memories have been conducted by testing subjects by verbal cues, as in asking them questions about when certain events happened. Less work has been done in the field of looking at odor-related autobiographical memories, however. 

Favorite childhood treat - fig newtons
The work that's been done in odor-autobiographical memories has suggested that odor-autobiographical memories are recalled more during early life. The subjects were presented with either an odor, word or picture and asked to recall a memory. The results showed that most of our odor-mediated memories come from our first decade of life, while verbal or visual-mediated memories are more readily recalled from 11-20 years of age. So more of our odor-memories occurring in our childhood are retained more readily than odor-memories happening later in life. I can totally attest to this. When I was a kid, I scraped my knee really bad from a bike ride. I attempted to scale a mountain (more like a hill, but things look different when you're a kid) that was all rocks at this construction site. I rode up the mountain on my kiddie dirt bike and ended up riding down the hill, but sliding and falling. I scraped my right knee really bad, so bad that rocks were embedded in it and I wailed like a weenie. My dad came running from a block away and helped me bandage my wound. Before putting a bandage on, he sprayed this pink antibacterial/antimicrobial mist on my knee and I screamed like nobody's business. I will never forget that methanol, alcohol smell. It burned and sizzled upon contact. To this day, when I smell disinfectant, I go back to that time when I thought I was good enough to ride up that thing. 

Deathly afraid of disinfectant, but I still love cycling - I go to this awesome place to do indoor spin at Costa Mesa called Full Psycle. If you're based in Orange County, try this place out!

Another interesting aspect of odor-autobiographical memories is the ability for these memories to "transport us back in time." Whenever I take trips to the beach, the salty smell of the ocean air always takes me back to being that awkward fat kid at Monterey, happily munching away at Kit Kats, with not a care in the world. It's amazing how strong food memories can be. You can just close your eyes, think of a certain food, like the smell of freshly baked cookies, and be transported away to a happier, simpler time. Or quite the opposite, smell something seemingly innocent, Italian meatballs, and suddenly feel sick to your stomach, recalling the last time you experienced horrible food poisoning (horrible night, stupid decision to eat expired Greek yogurt and Italian meatballs - ruined my love for yogurt for over a year). Probably one reason why olfactory memories seem so powerful and vivid compared to other memories, is the fact that the olfactory system connects directly to the emotional center of your brain, the amygdala - this is a theory, and so far, still under investigation. Another proposed idea of why odor-memories are so easily recalled over other types of memories could be that the olfactory bulb connects directly to the hippocampus, the neural hub responsible for memory formation. 

Olfactory circuit projects straight to key centers for emotional memory: the amygdala (emotional processing) and hippocampus (memory formation)

More work needs to be done in this area, but for sure, an interesting topic of investigation. 

Next week may be a weird posting, be forewarned. I'm heading to ComicCon, San Diego and may come back writing a post dedicated to food porn. On my to-do list is this amazing restaurant that I've heard raves about, Extraordinary Desserts, that I must go to. MUST GO TO. I keep bugging MOH about it.

To entice you, the creme brulee!

Until next time, happy eating!


References:
Larson M. and Willander J. Autobiographical odor memory. 2009. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 

Olfactory-neural circuit courtesy of http://www.yalescientific.org/2011/05/the-neural-basis-of-olfaction/

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Quinoa - crazy!

Happy Independence Day weekend everyone! Hopefully some of you get to reap the joys of a 4-day weekend! For those who didn't, and had Thursday off only to come back to work Friday (me), here's to the weekend again!

Lately, I've been on a crazy quinoa kick. I mentioned in a previous posting about baking with quinoa into cranberry almond cookies, but what about making quinoa patties for the Fourth of July instead of grilling the traditional hamburger? Quinoa is so versatile! So let's backtrack on what exactly is quinoa and why everyone should try this little ancient grain at least once before dismissing it.



Quinoa is a favorite source of nutrition among vegetarians and vegans because of its high protein and mineral content (source: FAO.org). Quinoa, chicken and other meats, contains all the essential amino acids necessary for us to produce our body's source of protein - these food items are called complete proteins. Other sources of protein can come from grains or nuts, but they don't contain all the essential amino acids we need and are called incomplete proteins. Our body builds up muscle using 8 amino acids (basic unit for muscle production). While meat contains all the essential amino acids for protein production, there are some good sources of complete proteins such as tofu, eggs, and quinoa!

Eggs are a great source of protein - great boiled, fried, or poached (photo courtesy of Julian Berry)
When I first saw quinoa, I figured it would taste just like rice. Quinoa though tastes kind of springy. It sits in your mouth like rice, but when you munch on it, it's got some bite to it. The texture on quinoa is really unique and goes great with everything from salad toppings, substitute "rice" sides, hot cereal (mixed with oatmeal - try it with dried or fresh fruit!), and as I just recently found out, great as a burger patty substitute!

For Fourth of July this year, I really wanted to try something new. For the past year I've stopped eating meat for personal reasons, but every so often I'll get a whiff of something meaty and my most basic carnal urges will rise to the surface. It can be something as subtle as the MOH snacking away on fried chicken wings, or like this week, the aromatic smell of BBQ ribs, burgers, and hot dogs grilling on a warm summer day. But I figured, why mope around and wish I was eating meat when there are so many great ways to make veggie burgers that are not only tastier, but healthier too! So when I came across a great recipe for quinoa based burger patties, I was sold. SOLD. So I was excited, but I wasn't sure how MOH or my baby sister would react to eating vegetarian patties..? 



Ingredients for sliders (adapted from http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/09/crispy-quinoa-sliders/):
3 cups quinoa cooked in water or chicken broth (can be done the night before, should soak quinoa in water for a bit before use - overnight can even be done if you want)
1 cup cooked chickpeas coarsely chopped
1/2 cup mixture of cheese of your choice (for a sharp bite, do cheddar or manchego; for a soft cheesy taste, do toma, mozarella or provolone)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
1. Mix ingredients together in a large bowl, mixing until mixture sticks together as one unit, thick and sticky enough to be balled up into patties. If mixture doesn't stick, add another egg. If mixture turns out too wet, try adding in some oats.

2. Ball up individual patties and line in plate, pressing down on patty so that patties are flattened.

3. Take frying pan and add 1 tbsp oil - when ready, plate patties onto pan and press down to flatten patty. Fry each side of patty for 2 minutes (or until crisp) - when both sides fried, place onto plate on top of napkin.

4. Add your favorite toppings and enjoy! Some toppings that I enjoy are avocados, romaine, sprouts, tomatoes, and jalapenos! Burgers also go great with either mustard and spicy mustard or BBQ sauce, hickory!



***
So the poll results from my study of n=3 participants. I made these burgers for myself, MOH and my visiting baby sister. The results were great! If you pan fry the patties, the quinoa tastes really crisp and had a great bite to it, especially with the carrots. I think for next time, I'm going to add some black beans instead and corn to make the filling more substantial. The patty tasted amazing and MOH and my sister weren't missing the meat aspect of a typical Fourth of July, so all ended well! We scarfed down all the burgers, and snacked on curried chickpeas - great meal to end the holidays!

Happy eating!