Complete Food Experience!

A real full-blown food experience involves all five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.

Though you'll think there is no need to explain how senses of taste and smell get involved, on the contrary, they really deserve a lot more discussions as they are the front and center of the art of cooking.

Evidence of how food involves sense of sight, or vice versa, is everywhere these days, from Pinterest to popular food blogs. The art of food plating is no more reserved to just a few who are fortunate enough to visit the star-decorated restaurants. The visual presentation of food has become an art in their own right to provoke the strongest desires and emotions for food just by looking at the pictures.

Close your eyes for a moment and recall the sound of a sizzling steak when it hits the hot grill, or the fast, crisp splattering cheers of oil when the cook put your order of fries into the hot oil. Think about how you feel when you hear the clattering of silverwares and clinking of wine glasses in a wedding banquet or a busy restaurant. Does that simulate your appetite, make your mouth water and ready to eat just by listening to that?

If most of the meals you have are prepared by someone else, then you don't know what you are missing. It's a chance to work with your hands, and there is something very satisfying when you can see something through from start to finish, create just by you. Bread-baking can be very therapeutic to work through stress and aggression by mixing, kneading and punching down the dough. And yes, the wonderful aroma of fresh-baked bread is healing to the souls of anyone who is lucky enough to be home when the bread leaves the oven.

Kneading a bread dough definitely deserves a spot on your bucket list.

More on taste and smell later ...