Does food taste better when you have to work for it?

its just psychological. food will taste the same. your brain just tells you its better. in actuality its still hte same.

I’m sure it’s completely psychological, but food tastes so much better when camping. It must have something to do with working up a hunger. So yeah, food does taste better when you have to work for it.

I disagree with @wenn – I believe food DOES taste differently when I prepare it than when someone else does the same thing to it. I add that extra ingredient: love. My family will tell you the same thing. Even something as simple as a tossed salad can have a different taste when you add love.

When I was hospitalised for 3 days, I despised all the hospital food. I don’t think I’d ever appreciated my mother’s food more, when she came in and snuck me some dinner. Seriously, yum to the power of infinity.

Gumballs are totally fun to watch roll down the little contraption and come out through the slot, but they actually taste pretty gross. I think there is definitely a “fun” element to some foods.

There is also a feeling of great satisfaction when you eat something that you grew, harvested, or hunted. My venison jerky is, without a doubt, the tastiest jerky in the world. And nothing beats pan-fried fish that you caught a few hours earlier.

So then I’d add that food that you gathered for yourself is better because it’s fresh and you know where it came from. Bananas and oranges are going to taste better when you’ve opened them because they had a protective shell before hand.

Though this does not apply to oysters and grapes. Shucking your own oysters means that by the time you eat them all you can think about is how much your hands are bleeding. And few things in life are as decadent as grapes that someone has peeled and fed to you :)

No. But it always tastes better when someone else prepares it.

According to other people, I’m an incredible cook. When I cook for others, I cannot eat my own cooking, or if I do, I don’t enjoy it. Left on my own, I exist on yogurt, steel cut oatmeal, and chicken broth (separately, not together.)

Taste is all about the brain’s perception, and that perception changes when you get really hungry. And I find that good hard work is the best way to get really hungry.

As they say, “hunger is the best sauce”.

It would only be a placebo type affect, but then they didn’t have they shells or peels they would go bad and that would be nasty

Another one for the list – crab legs! I wish that I would burn as many calories getting that deliciousness out of the shell as I gain when eating them. Mmmmm… crab legs and drawn buttter.

If I cook something myself it can be burned and I still won’t mind as much. If someone else would burn it I would give them a hard time. Hmm maybe that says more about me as a stubborn a-hole than it did answer the question :(

It is all psychological. The brain tells you what it is going to tell you.

Everything is better when you have worked for it.

I appreciate (and care for) things more that I have worked for.

I enjoy food more that is prepared by someone else.

If your brain tells you it tastes better than it’s better. It doesn’t really matter what your tongue says.

I’m sure an apple tastes far sweeter to a man dying in the wilderness than it does to Mrs. Fladopolis who got her apple from one of her students.

@VS making your food with “love” does not change the properties of what you prepare. Its still a psychological. i can make a can of chicken noodle soup really pissed off or with tender love and care, its still going to taste like chicken noodle soup.

does a bottle of water taste different if you are thirsty or not? no. its the same water, but if you are thirsty you enjoy it more.

There is a difference between enjoying food more and it actually tasting different.

I agree somewhat with @PandoraBoxx—I don’t always enjoy food that I’ve prepared. Sometimes, if I’m slaving over the stove, the scents of the food can overwhelm me, and while my family is gushing about how delicious (x) is, I’m eating a bowl of cereal and trying not to gag. So there’s definitely a threshold.

I will say that making something that doesn’t take too long is almost always more delicious than something packaged and “easy” to eat.

Oh, and as a sidenote to the original OP—I hate having to work too hard for my oranges. I prefer those easy-to-peel clementines. LOL.

I know that this is true for Vagina. It’s a lot better when she don’t kiss you on the first date, but has sex with your brother later that night.

I think that while taste obviously has a physiological component, the judgement of how tasty it is is subjective and psychological.

I remember eating some pretzels in Krakow, and they come in a stick and a round variety. Not although that they are made with the same dough, the round one is tasted different. So I think how one bites into something, the physicality of it makes a difference. Same reason why rice tastes so much better in sushi, but if you were served a bowl of vinegary rice, it would be much harder to swallow.

So I do think that it feels different to be in physical contact with your food. Try eating Indian food with your hands, and with your fork; it’s a different experience. (or pizza too, for that matter)

Personally, I generally prefer playing with my food. I love hotpots, I love cooking (and “tasting” while cooking).. =)