I really identify with all of the above. Is this something that comes with age......not eating and not enjoying food. I feel my food/cooking repetoire would be more pallatable and exciting if only I could afford to eat in the restaurants I would like to eat in, just occasionally (oh how I ache for it, but my meagre pension doesn't run to it) thus not enabling me to experience new things. I feel like I have run the gauntlet, not only with food, but different kitchens, different dining rooms, a plethora of restaurants over the years and a lifetime of different friends and acquaintances, and I seem to have spent so long "stuffing a mushroom" (an expression from the vegetarian 60's) in my own kitchen, that if I had the choice now, I would never cook again. I feel like I have "done my bit" over the years and yet always used to love eating, cooking and entertaining. I likened it to "enjoying life". If people enjoyed food, they invariably enjoyed life and sex! Those things went hand in hand. At the tender age of 70 I am now stuck at a table with a gobbling vegetarian who seems to eat 2 inches from his plate. Worse, he dribbles and loses food down his front and drinks too much whilst having the radio blaring out. Last night, I removed myself and went and sat at a table where it was quiet and I could eat at my pace and enjoyed it far more. Occasionally the family descend but I am so out of touch with eating and cooking that it becomes a chore to dish up something substantial. Yes, appetites and enthusiasm become less and less. I remember working on a Kibbutz, where there was a communal dining room. Oh, how I envy that now. Okay, so we had chicken every single day, but it would be lovely to go to a decent place for a meal where there was freshly cooked food and fresh salads to eat. Simple and easy. I just can't get excited by the food on offer in my local locality. It's all frozen and fried. Or pizza.....or fish and chips, or things with bread, lots of it. There isn't one single place where you could eat a fresh meal......and that is just what I crave these days........... Something fresh and simple.