I don’t — it has a bit of a bitter edge that I can detect that puts me off a bit (which is weird, as I like bitter flavors), so I just go straight to stock cubes or MSG if I need to perk up a dish.
I can smell the impact of lots of common foods in my urine. Coffee. Some spices. Maybe shellfish? But maybe that just gives a distinctive odor to my feces. I haven’t had a lot of shellfish in a while. What goes in must come out, and we process a lot of stuff through the kidneys. (I can smell one of my husband’s chemo drugs in his urine, too.)
I wonder if this relates to your flavors sensitivities? (Given that much of flavor is olfactory.)
Other than being an asparagus in urine smeller I don’t notice any variation in my urine smell based on foods eaten.
I notice asparagus and a few other things. I think certain bbq sauces or marinades. Probably a spice.
I do have a better sense of smell than most people, even post-covid. It’s not nearly as good as it used to be. ![]()
I used to track my menstrual cycle by the odor of my urine, too, although the times with the most distinctive odor weren’t the most useful to know. (A point between ovulation and menstruation was the most distinctive.)
But studies have shown that most people have a much better sense of smell than they realize, they just don’t pay much attention to it. I think Richard Feynman did a parlor trick where he could tell what book a person has just handled, and he did that by smelling the book. And some researcher has trained college students to “track” scents in the grass using chocolate. He said they improve dramatically after a small amount of practice.
What an excellent and informative video. Addresses the processes and physiology of perception of flavor (summary: it’s really a rather complex interplay between multiple senses and you really should watch this video, as it doesn’t lend itself well to a pithy sound bite summary).