What flavor is your passion?

A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness, this unmistakable smell is as much a part of the book as its contents. ~ Dr. Matija Strlic, a chemist at University College London

If your passion were a food, what would it be?  Would it be an appetizer you savor before the main course? Or a dessert you save for the end of the meal after you've finished all your veggies?  Are you afraid to eat it because you may become what you eat?

The flavor of my passion is vanilla.  Perhaps its scent is what attracts me to old books, just as it attracts Dr. Matija Strlic, a scientist dedicated to analyzing the smell of old books.  Besides savoring the sweet fragrance of vanilla, I love to swoosh a spoonful of vanilla ice cream in my mouth before swallowing.  It tingles my insides while traveling down my throat, a cool contrast on a hot summer day.  When the vanilla reaches my heart, it sets it on fire, driving me to expel flavorful words out from my fingertips and onto the keyboard of my Macbook Pro.

It would be so easy to skip all other foods, even water, and live on vanilla alone, however, I realize a healthy writer is one who balances his passion with flavors found in other food sources.  At last, I've found the proper diet.  I begin each day at 5:00AM, unscrewing the cap from my precious vanilla.  Even the sound from the cap unscrewing makes me salivate.  And when the clock ticks 8:08AM, it's time to put the cap back on my sweetest delight and see what else is on the menu.

What flavor is your passion?  Leave your comment below.  And if you're like me and your passion is writing, click here to enter my writer's kitchen.