Adventures In Eating--At Least For ME!

In no way can I be considered adventurous--and that is even truer when it comes to my eating. I like to pretend that I like variety and I can almost convince myself of that, but, it all comes down to this: I like what I like and don't want to try new things.

Now I must explain the reason I am the way I am. When I was growing up, our meals consisted of meat and potatoes--potatoes prepared every way imaginable. This was because of The Father--he would not eat anything 'unusual,' so we ate meat and potatoes. He also ate bread and fruit, but rarely ate any vegetables. I still don't understand how the man is still alive--his eating habits defy everything that nutritionists consider 'good.' The Father described lasagna and pizza as looking 'like it had been eaten once already.' And because everything that went on in the household was first and foremost for The Father's happiness (this was The Mother's decision), food that was served was what he wanted to eat. So, I never even ate pizza until I was a teenager and I didn't have my first taco until after I was married. Living in a 'vacuum' for so many years is hard to get over and it has left me with the need to be safe in my food choices. K gets perturbed with me when I won't try new things in restaurants, but I figure I will order something that I KNOW I will like and eat. (Now I know I could always have something else if I absolutely couldn't eat what I ordered, but that, too, defies my upbringing: you must eat what is put in front of you or you go hungry till the next meal. Those childhood psychological barriers are a real bitch!)

All of this was quite interesting for me when we attended the double wedding reception of our neighbor's dughters last night: the reception was held in an authentic Mexican restaurant. I didn't think there was going to be much of a problem at first--hell, after two or three BIG glasses of Sangria, is ANYTHING a problem? As an appetizer, chips and salsa were placed on all of the tables--and I don't think I have ever tasted better salsa. 'This is going to be fine,' I thought. Then we made our way to the buffet table. And I began to panic. I didn't see anything that looked familiar and I didn't know what I was going to eat! Here I was, starving, holding onto a HUGE plate, in line with dozens of people, and I was close to walking away with one measly little taco. Of course, I was too embarrassed to do that, so I went with stuff that looked rather safe. I DIDN'T take one of the aluminum foil packets--couldn't see WHAT was inside--and didn't take one of the corn-husk wrapped things--again, couldn't see what was inside--but I managed to cover my plate well enough. As it turned out, I had enough to eat. I had a taco and a spoonful of a beef mixture and something that was shredded chicken in tomato sauce and stuff and some rice. There was an entire pan of refried beans--shudder--and I managed to stay FAR away from that. When we got back to the table, my friend across from me had taken a foil packet and it contained some flour tortillas. I guess the beef and chicken mixtures were there so you could make your own fajitas--which I did do. All in all, it could have been HORRIBLE, but I managed to enjoy myself. Now K has threatened to put this restaurant on the list of places to frequent--Lord help me! I must say, though, that the cake was one of the best I have EVER tasted--it was a two-layer white cake with extremely rich butter cream frosting and it had a raspberry filling. YUM!! I wish I would have thought to take a piece home with me.

Despite my resistance to change, I am trying. Never before would I have considered going to a Caribbean restaurant--which we did when we went to Chicago--or an authentic Cajun restaurant--which we will do here in the near future. I now have ventured past Olive Garden for Italian food and past Taco Bell for Mexican food, so I am expanding my horizons. Just, please, DON'T try to get me into a Greek or Indian restaurant--don't think I could handle either one of those!