is a food adventure enthusiast who has spent his life eating his way through cultures. He comes from a family of caterers, cooks, and restaurant owners. A native of Taiwan and now an American citizen, he grew up around Chinese food culture before arriving in the U.S. Growing up in America paved a foundation for Fa-Tai's cross-cultural excursions into food. Fa-Tai has worked on organic farms, served as a Peace Corp volunteer in the South Pacific, studied food habits in Madagascar, and worked at the United Nations. He has also spent several years pursuing a Ph.D. in food studies from New York University and taught food culture classes there as well as The New School. Throughout his life, food has served as the catalyst in both personal and professional endeavors.

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Budding Taste's philosophy towards the sensory experience of food is a democratic one. We believe taste experiences are not uniform, that each individual has unique perspectives on food dimensions, and all of us have the ability to discern the multiple aspects of sensing food. Taste, in our view, is not an exercise only reserved for experienced foodies, acclaimed chefs, or culinary experts, rather it is something everyone can learn to enjoy and judge. Knowing how to distinguish between fresh and stale, fatty versus lean, one spicing technique in relation to another, one region's food versus another, or identifying taste palettes of world cuisines: These are all accessible to individuals who take the time to see, smell, touch, taste, think and - most importantly - articulate the various sensations of food.

We live in a food environment where tastes are too easily fashioned and - to a certain extent - controlled by food companies. Walk into any supermarket or drive to the nearest retail center and you will find a conglomeration of food substances that appeal to the latest scientific studies, health claims, nutritional advice, and diet fads. America is caught up with eating foods that provide function to the body and somewhere along the way, taste became an afterthought. We have become a culture with numb taste buds. Can you remember the last time or how often you conversed about the flavors, textures, smells, temperature, feel, and level of spicing of a particular food item?

At Budding Taste we want you to develop your sense of taste. Enrich your eating experience by paying attention to all the various dimensions of food. Teach yourself how to judge the food around you; know its dimensions; engage with its subtleties; and decide what is pleasurable for your own eating style.
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Tasting makes use of all your senses and more! Believe it or not, your tongue is not the only thing that does the job. Sure, we talk about sweetness, sourness, saltiness and savoriness that your tongues detect, but consider the following:

Before you start eating, you taste with your eyes. The visual image of food communicates a lot of information about a dish before it even reaches your mouth. Try eating with your eyes closed next time. It may be simultaneously scary and liberating.

What happens when your nose is all stuffy from a bad cold? Can you taste your food? Whatever you ate during your cold was probably dull and tasteless. The smell of food is so important to your ability to taste that without a tongue (and yes, there are people who may have lost their tongues for various reasons) your sense of taste is still quite strong.

Ok, so you have a piece of food in your mouth that smells good, tastes good, and looks good; but what if it's slimy, or hard, or tough, or soggy? Soggy cereal? No thanks! Chewy beef? Sounds like a lot of work! Fibrous fruit? Hmmmm... not sure. Texture is a very important part of tasting. Some cultures will eat certain flavorless foods for its textural pleasures.

Almost all foods must be served in the right range of temperatures. Cold pizza anyone? Hot orange juice for breakfast? Shall I go on? I think you get the point.


This is an influential factor that is big and deep. The way we express how food tastes affects our approach to eating. For example, in the Chinese language, there are words for textures that do not have English translations. People that only know English will not have those words to express a particular taste or texture. Or consider this: While English-speakers may only have several words to express sweetness, other culture may have a dozen. Do you know how to articulate the difference between the sweetness of honey, sugar, or high fructose corn syrup (the sweetener used in most sodas)?

Beyond these taste factors, there are other larger, broader, complex things that affect the way we taste. Some of these include culture, psychology, how food feels in your body, nutritional beliefs, social history, economics, and more. Wow, as you can see we have only touched the tip of the iceberg. Come join us on Budding Taste excursions as we will explore some of these ideas in more depth.
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