The blessing of the past
A woman from the pollanesque community put up an article from Cooking Light, where Michael Pollan spoke about how their house isn't always simple because his son is a very picky eater medically. It was an insightful article about the kid, but what it really got me think about was my tastes now and how my childhood formed them. I am quite specially a neophiliac, especially where it comes to food, because of how my mother raised me.
I won't tell you everything was healthy then. I loved orange soda, drank milk out of bill miller's mug with cartoons every afternoon, and never found a limit on how much I could eat of Kix or Kraft Mc n' Cheese. On top of it every night I got fully balanced meals, constantly with meat, vegetables, and starch complimented by a glass of milk. But she also did one truly amazing thing (which I will be passing on to my children). Every month or a few we went to new restaurant we'd never been to. Different tastes. Different ethnicities. Different everything. And didn't allow us to simply order for ourselves.
I have a very deliberate memory of two different happenstances related to this. One, a German restaurant, where she fed us each of the first bite of these new types of sausage and made me close my eyes when I ate it because I was very confused and nervous of them looking so 'weird.' The second of seafood restaurant, when she ordered a dish and told me until I'd have to eat it or she'd never tell me what it was, and so I did try calamari the first time without knowing it. (Turned out I loved all of the above and usually almost everything she took us to, too.)
I love discovering new foods. I'm that person who will try whatever people are eating in their city or country and openly avoid any restaurant or coffee bar bearing a name from home (Because, hello, I can get that at home). I want to be outside the box. I want to try things I haven't before and I'm usually quite excited when I have the chance to try new foods, even if sometimes I'll shy away when ordering at a too familiar, favorite restaurant out of habit. But I never turn down the offer to try something else on someone's plate or to offer my own. I want new experiences and I am unwilling to judge food by it's cover or it's reputation or someone else's opinion until it's in my own mouth.
My mother gave me that.
And for that I feel very blessed.
I won't tell you everything was healthy then. I loved orange soda, drank milk out of bill miller's mug with cartoons every afternoon, and never found a limit on how much I could eat of Kix or Kraft Mc n' Cheese. On top of it every night I got fully balanced meals, constantly with meat, vegetables, and starch complimented by a glass of milk. But she also did one truly amazing thing (which I will be passing on to my children). Every month or a few we went to new restaurant we'd never been to. Different tastes. Different ethnicities. Different everything. And didn't allow us to simply order for ourselves.
I have a very deliberate memory of two different happenstances related to this. One, a German restaurant, where she fed us each of the first bite of these new types of sausage and made me close my eyes when I ate it because I was very confused and nervous of them looking so 'weird.' The second of seafood restaurant, when she ordered a dish and told me until I'd have to eat it or she'd never tell me what it was, and so I did try calamari the first time without knowing it. (Turned out I loved all of the above and usually almost everything she took us to, too.)
I love discovering new foods. I'm that person who will try whatever people are eating in their city or country and openly avoid any restaurant or coffee bar bearing a name from home (Because, hello, I can get that at home). I want to be outside the box. I want to try things I haven't before and I'm usually quite excited when I have the chance to try new foods, even if sometimes I'll shy away when ordering at a too familiar, favorite restaurant out of habit. But I never turn down the offer to try something else on someone's plate or to offer my own. I want new experiences and I am unwilling to judge food by it's cover or it's reputation or someone else's opinion until it's in my own mouth.
My mother gave me that.
And for that I feel very blessed.