So much of eating is anticipation.

I held up a tiny piece of walnut bread … ‘Really think about it,’ I commended. ‘About what it is. About what it isn’t. About what you get out of it. And try to store up the memory for later. So you can reference the flavour. So much of eating is anticipation. Rehearsal and then memory. Theoretically you should be able to eat almost entirely in your head.’

Source: an extract from Big Brother by Lionel Shriver