In general, how good a food tastes corresponds well with how good it looks and smells. Burnt food, for example, smells and looks charred. It more than likely will taste bitter. A fresh loaf of banana bread smells wonderfully and even the look of steam wafting from it is appetizing. I have discovered an exception, though. This morning when I was preparing my breakfast, I opened a can of Progresso Split Pea with Ham soup. I thought, This looks utterly revolting. I poured it out into my bowl and looked at what remained in the can: a thick, pasty sludge of greenness. Where had I seen this before? Yes, it reminded me of one horrible, horrible stool sample that I had seen at work before (minus the chunks of ham and potato). Perhaps the influence of that image affected my perception of smell as well--all of it sudden that soup didn't smell like food. Or at least food hadn't been already processed by a body. Since it was out of the can, I decided to heat it up anyway and eat it. It was good, very good. While most of the time, the prediction of palatability based on smell and appearances serves the important function of warning people that food is probably not safe to eat, it can be totally off. In those cases, you just have to suck it up and stick it in your mouth. And pray that it actually tastes good.