Flavor and taste
By puppynut
@puppynut (370)
New Zealand
January 1, 2012 7:21am CST
Why is it when everyone discusses food flavors they always say it taste like chicken. Don't they know only chicken tastes like chicken. For example Tuna, I have heard them call it "chicken of the sea". Surely they mean "fish of the sea". Have you ever been out fishing and pulled up a chicken? Do you have friends that constantly refer to everything as tasting like chicken? For example goat apparently tastes like chicken and rabbit, alligator, and opossum. What does squirrel taste like? What about rat, does that remind you of our feathered friends. How limited are people's palates, or use of descriptive words. Or is God playing a joke and ran out of flavors and thought chicken was the best, so assigned it to all these tasty beings.
1 person likes this
6 responses
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
8 Feb 12
I have wondered the same thing myself. I think that people believe that if they tell you that it tastes like chicken, then you will be more willing to try something "exotic" or unusual ... something that you might not normally think appetizing ... because they are relating it to tasting like something familiar. That theory does not work with me, though. If I am going to try something exotic, then I want it to taste different than something that I eat all the time or why bother trying it?
If it tastes like chicken, then I might as well just eat chicken.
If it tastes like chicken, then I might as well just eat chicken.2 people like this
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
8 Feb 12
Perga - I think that you might be right about texture, except that I didn't really think frog legs had the same texture as chicken, either - they were more ... rubbery maybe or perhaps just a bit tougher
... than chicken. They definitely did not remind me of eating chicken. Come to think of it, they were a bit more like rabbit but not as tasty. Do you think that rabbit and squirrel are similar?
Top - I have never had buffalo grass, but I have had buffalo that has eaten grass. Does that count?
... than chicken. They definitely did not remind me of eating chicken. Come to think of it, they were a bit more like rabbit but not as tasty. Do you think that rabbit and squirrel are similar?
Top - I have never had buffalo grass, but I have had buffalo that has eaten grass. Does that count?1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
9 Feb 12
Probably not, because European buffalo are not the same than US buffalo and are not eating the same grass
. I have had some US buffalo too, but I have never eaten European buffalo because they are protected : can I suggest that they probably taste like chicken 
? I read that vodkas with buffalo grass were forbidden in the USA because buffalo grass used for the flavor has too much coumarin in it : you don't know what you are missing
. I have had some US buffalo too, but I have never eaten European buffalo because they are protected : can I suggest that they probably taste like chicken ? I read that vodkas with buffalo grass were forbidden in the USA because buffalo grass used for the flavor has too much coumarin in it : you don't know what you are missing1 person likes this
@deadbeat (82)
• United States
2 Jan 12
Funny you should say that and I've said it for frog legs myself, that it tastes like chicken.
I think people say that when they are at a loss for how to describe something. And I have seen in the past where renowned chefs and foodies were blindfolded and called guinea pig 'chicken' So I do think there is some truth to the fact that when people say it tastes like chicken it must be that someone thought it was chicken in a blind taste test.
As far as frog legs?
Yes they do taste somewhat like chicken. And I love eating fried frog legs.
2 people like this
@marguicha (223795)
• Chile
26 Feb 12
I´m sure that it is a problem of vocabulary and not a question of all those meat being alike. Goat has a strong flavour and so does turkey, but in another way. Tuna, the fresh and expensive tuna, does not taste like chicken. I just wish chicken would taste like tuna as I crave for tuna but don´t have the means to buy it often. Rabbit is rabbit. And wild birds (so good!) have their own taste. God did not run out of flavours but some people ran out of words
@marguicha (223795)
• Chile
26 Feb 12
You are right, purple. The best example of that are the letters Christopher Columbus wrote to the Kings of Spain trying to explain the New World. None of the trees, none of the animals, none of the grasses were exactly as the ones everyone knew in Europe. He had to make comparisons in order to be understood. I loved them when I read them
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.@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
26 Feb 12
I love the way you put this "God did not run out of flavours but some people ran out of words"
I think that really is part of why people compare one thing to another, but I also think familiarity is another part of it ... they compare something unfamiliar to them with something that is familiar to put it into some kind of perspective.
I think that really is part of why people compare one thing to another, but I also think familiarity is another part of it ... they compare something unfamiliar to them with something that is familiar to put it into some kind of perspective. @kundanraj (660)
• India
1 Jan 12
Even chicken is made it is made in different style. If different people know diffrent way of creating gravy and mixing it with chicken. There are many flavoir of chickens as it used different materials in them and thus taste is different.
If other try to eat diffrent birds or animls it will have diffrent taste as they are made. How you made it made the taste.
1 person likes this
@PhillyDreamer (3039)
• United States
1 Jan 12
I like this theory a lot, the preparation of meat can be a big factor why people say it taste like chicken. You made a great point Kundanraj.
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@PhillyDreamer (3039)
• United States
1 Jan 12
I think it's a bug in the matrix that makes all strange foods taste like chicken. Apparently when the machines took over the world they weren't very creative in the programming of food taste. Still I don't think I'll be taking the green pill anytime soon, because chicken is better then the mush they serve in the real world any day of the week.
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@PhillyDreamer (3039)
• United States
1 Jan 12
I think if you've never eaten a food before you try to connect the taste with something you are familiar with. In this case since some foods have the same texture as chicken people equate it with the taste. The only meats I have tried other than chicken or beef are Tuna, Lamb, and several kinds of unknown fish. All fish to me taste like fish except for tuna which taste like tuna lol. Lamb kind of taste like beef, but a bit differently. Unfortunately I am not adventurous enough to try frog legs, or alligator, therefore I would not know except by other peoples description.
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