the nature of food that is blue...

What's the deal with blue food?

Food comes in so many colors, but rarely blue. It's been said that blue is an inedible color, giving the impression of artificialness - that the mere sight of a blue food makes most people uneasy.

Yet, we are surrounded by blue in the real world, the sky, the ocean. Blue is one of the two main colors that we see in the earth, when viewed from space. So why is it that blue food seems unnatural?

It would be true to say that the thought of a cup-cake smothered in blue frosting does not make me salivate like one of Pavlov's dogs. It is indeed the epitome of artificialness.

I did recently eat a special edition pop-tart emblazoned with the American flag. Smothered in blue frosting, encrusted with tiny candy stars, I was horrified, yet captivated to eat the symbol of all American pride. I derived no pleasure from this breakfast confection, merely amusement.

Other blue foods...

Blueberries? Not blue. Frosty purple-black perhaps, but certainly not blue.

Blue cheese? It's hardly blue. More like grey than blue. But that raises an interesting question... can food that is not physically blue, actually be blue in nature?

For instance, when I think of a pear, I would say that the nature of the fruit is blue. An autumn fruit, it signals the falling of withered leaves, many windy, overcast days and the nearing of winter. The feeling the pear evokes within me, is a blue feeling. Yet, even though a pear in my mind's eye is a brilliant blue in color, if in reality, I was to slice a pear in half and find it to be blue, I would be repulsed.

Blue is not meant to be consumed. Nature has provided us with food of almost every other color, but blue is resistant to consumption.

We should swim in the ocean, but the blue water becomes clear in our hands as we bring it to our mouths. We can't take blue from the ocean. We're not meant to hold it in our hands, much less consume it.

We should reach out for the blue sky, but we can never grasp the blue in our hands, bring it to our lips and taste it.

Perhaps, one day, Gaia will allow us to taste blue. Perhaps when we become wise enough to stop polluting the ocean and the sky.

blue - a flavour beyond our wildest dreams

-starlightescapade