Tastes differ
Tastes differ
Tastes differ
The word “taste” has several meanings. One of them
is a physical sense of perception, as, for example, in “It tastes so sweet, try
it!”
Taste may also be defined as aesthetic feeling
towards something or understanding, for example “she developed a taste for
music” – which means that she became fond of music.
Another one is a personal attitude towards
something, as taste for choosing things, such as clothes, jewelry, or even
wall-paper, furniture or paintings for one’s house. In this sense we may say
that it’s a synonym for “style”.
We often hear people say “this thing is tasteful
or tasteless” or “this person has good taste” or “his taste is bad”. This means
that all of us have some kind of a taste, which is determined by the way we
were brought up, by the time when we were growing. It also depends on the
culture we are living in, on our age and on the people we are surrounded by.
Moreover, it depends on the social class we belong to and even on our
profession.
People are so different and what we suppose is
good for us, what seems beautiful and tasteful to us, may be just the contrary
for other people. Therefore it is said “Tastes differ”.
When we travel to different countries we notice a
great variety of styles, of the ways people dress, decorate their house, behave
themselves, treat their friends and relatives. Cuisine is also very diverse
from country to country. And of course it is all very fascinating and different
from what we have back home.
For example, here in Russia we have many dishes
which contain potatoes, and in Mexico the main components of most dishes are
rice and beans. Foreigners are surprised that we always eat soups in Russia. In
the US, for instance, soup is served only on big holidays such as Labor day or
Thanksgiving. Americans also don’t understand how we can eat meat-jelly (or
kholodets) or okroshka (chopped greens, cucumbers, meat, eggs with mayonnaise
and kvass).
Tastes differ even within one country. Each of us
perhaps remembers quarreling with one of our friends over what tastes better: fried
potatoes or macaroni with meat, chocolate or ice-cream, porridge or omelet.
Tastes differ even among people belonging to different
sex. Recently American medical journal Psychology and Behaviour published the
results of a very interesting research. They used the Web to survey 277 male
and female participants in order to find out what kind of food they prefer.
They found that women are more prone to eat comfort foods high in fat and
sugar, such as cakes and ice-cream. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to
turn to soups, pasta and steaks.
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