One of the hardest things about not having a sense of taste is trying to make eating out a more enjoyable experience. Over the years, I’ve adjusted and finetuned a method that works best for me. I take with me a few small items that I can add to my meal to make it more textured or spicy.

In a restaurant, I choose my food by looking at the ingredients and seeing which will spend the least amount of time in my mouth, (because I cant perceive tastes) and focus on the foods which will contrast in textures, spices and smells. Occasionally I’m faced with a situation were the choices available don’t include any of the aspects above, and this is where my special additions come into play.

Luckily I have a 4 year old daughter, so I always have a bag with me when we’re out, and if you look in the front pouch you will find a travel sized bottle of Nando’s peri-peri sauce (they have lots of flavours and I chose the spicy lime one due to liking the smell of lime and the spice level being quite good for me). Also, I will have a seed mix with me. I first came across these when looking in the stir-fry section of the supermarket. I found ready prepared seed mixes in perfect sized tubs and they range from chilli orientated to pumpkinseed mix. This is just great for changing around very bland and repetitive textures, such as the large amount of mash potato found in sausage and mash. I’ve discovered that these extra ingredients are a handy and no fuss method that doesn’t draw too much attention to me and allows me to alter the food on my plate to best suit my needs related to having no sense of taste.

I’ve recently started experimenting with making my own horseradish, although I’m still trying to get the correct strength because at the moment it’s a bit lively to say the least! What I like about it is that I’ve blended it quite minimally so that it’s chunky, again, adding to the texture of my food. These are just a few things that I do and I do them to keep me interested in food and to make eating more enjoyable. It’s a difficult task I know, but I’ve found by adding the unusual and doing things slightly differently, it starts to become interesting rather than repetitive and boring.

Written by Adrian Wellock