Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat

John McQuaid's Tasty starts with the discredited taste map of the tongue and travels through super tasters, cultural culinary differences, the Scoville scale and the quest for the world's hottest pepper, our taste for sweetness, and a handful of other topics. It's a good overview of the science and history of what and how we eat, and an almost ideal commute book.