Lightbrite,
Does room temperature food feel cold when you eat it because it’s cooler than the inside of your mouth, which is usually somewhere around 98.5 degrees?
Room temperature is certainly colder than the inside of your mouth, but I think our conceptions of “hot” and “cold” food are driven more by expectation. Consider room temperature water – most people don’t consider that to be “cold” when drinking it.
And if it does feel cold because it’s cooler than our mouths, how come we cannot just breathe on our food to heat it?
You can warm cold food by breathing on it, just like you can warm your hands in the winter by breathing on them.