Bitterness

The night before last I peeled a banana and a bit of it got on my finger, so I licked it. It was highly bitter to taste and I was worried the banana was going to be horrible. It wasn’t. The following morning I was eating breakfast and I again got this bitter taste in my mouth. This time it wasn’t just that first taste but pretty much every bite. I had a piece of leftover pizza for lunch yesterday and again, bitterness. It was obvious at this point that something wasn’t quite right so I did an online search on the problem. One of the first results that turned up was pine mouth. Apparently there is a “condition” where some people are affected after eating pine nuts by getting a bitter and/or metallic taste in the mouth. It seems  show up a day or two after eating the pine nuts and lasts up to a couple weeks in most people. Then it just goes away. It doesn’t seem there is any agreement on the cause, except that it seems certain types that are grown in China cause the problem. It doesn’t affect everyone who eats them either, which is another curiosity. There were a few pine nuts in my pasta at Jamie’s Kitchen the other night. It seems too much of a coincidence to ignore.

Last night, the Scientist and I had our Tuesday night meal of Mad Mex food and Froyo frozen yoghurt. I might have done better to get something small at Mad Mex because it was all bitter and metallic to me. The yoghurt was a bit different. I realised here that I could taste it at first but then I got the aftertaste, which was bitter. I don’t know if that was specific to something about the yoghurt or not. This morning my cereal was similar but now I am left with bitterness long after finishing my food. It’s all very curious.