I read this passage from a story by David Foster Wallace a couple of weeks ago. The protagonist is talking about his childhood “voices” he’d hear and the accompanying unendurable fun and delight:
Sometimes the experience of the voices was ecstatic, sometimes so much so that it was almost too intense for me—as when you first bite into an apple or a confection that tastes so delicious and causes such a flood of oral juices that there is a moment of intense pain in your mouth and glands…
For me, this sensation feels like my tongue is at full salivating capacity, all tastebuds are mobilized, and my jaw twitches and aches a little. Then I was trying to remember the last time when I ate something so delicious that it hurt. Certainly, the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake, and the brown butter rhubarb bars, too. During my childhood, though, it was these treats blogged about some months ago on Seriouseats.com. They’re essentially like a very thin and airy toffee cookie: they’re made of caramel and baking soda and squished into a disk with shapes that you can crack around. In Seoul, they were sold by little old ladies in blue tents in the street, conveniently not too far from the exit of the piano school my sister and I attended. The consummate dinner-ruiner, my mother would yell at us if she found any sticky crumb traces on our faces or jackets. But I endured her pain and parental grief at this addictive cookie, because it was worth it for the pain of delicious pleasure, so strong that I almost couldn’t bear it after the first bites. That’s how good those were.
So, please share with the rest of the class: What have you eaten that made your mouth hurt in a good way?
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