What? Half my meals probably contain foods I dislike, and NO MILK!? I might have to go with the 8, and be miserable about it every day. 
Yeah, if I can rule out capsaicin completely, I’m in much better shape. I’m still a picky eater and I’d still get some unpalatable meals. But I suppose I’d also get some fabulous meals.
I came into the thread thinking it would easily be the 8 meals. Only having one of my favorite meals for the rest of my life would be pretty awful. But if it was only 8, some of the meals I’m never having again.
I think both are bad options, but I’d have to go for the variety. I’d get sick of 8, but with an infinite variety there’s always a chance of a fantastic meal. Much better conversation starter too.
You can have milk 
I was just trying to think of routine beverages, but I don’t drink milk, soda, or beer, so beer so those didn’t occur to me. They can go on the unlimited list, though. I don’t want anyone to get dehydrated.
I’m not a “picky” eater, just not a remotely adventurous one. I’m perfectly fine with spending the rest of my life eating things that I already know that I like and never, ever trying anything new. Wouldn’t spend a moment worrying about it. (Having said that, 8 is pretty restrictive, but vastly better than the other option.)
As an analogy, imagine that every day you had to have conversations with random new people. Some of them might be plesant. Some of them might be dull. Some of them might be horribly racist or sexist. Some of them might rant about some conspiracy theory. Some of them might want to discuss their digestive health in great detail. Some of them might be screaming lunatics. Some of them might try to convert you to their religion. Some might want to point out all of your physical flaws. No matter what they talked about, they were your conversation for the day. Would you enjoy this, or face each new day with dread? Because that is how I would feel about the “new meals every day” existence–a constant dread eating away at me every day as I prepared to play Russian Dressing Roulette.
I’d be struggling to even think of eight things. But that’s my choice.
Horrible? No way! That plus the health/weight benefits are the best parts of this hypothetical!
Yep, I’m another “eat to live” person. The 8 meals version honestly sounds like too much food, with an entree, salad, dessert etc for each meal, but I could be perfectly content with this plan.
I think the 8 meal plan would mess with my psyche. Too much pressure to choose the 8 meals, and if I get bored or start to dislike one of the meals from over saturation, it’s inevitable that I will blame myself for the situation.
Given that the variety edition presumes “makes culinary sense” I won’t have meals that are inherently disgusting, though I will clearly have to pick out bits and pieces to eat occasionally. I’m not a picky eater so this is the way to go.
It reminds me, though, of the time I was ordering Thai, and went the ‘random choice’ method of just picking something off the menu without knowing the dish already. The person on the phone asked me if I wanted it with or without the blood. At some point with the variety plan, it’s going to be “with”.
I don’t know if I can come up with 8 meals I love, but this would be ideal. Food doesn’t interest me in general, but the few things I like, I *really *like. Where do I sign up?
[Bolding mine.] Yeah, there is no rule that you have to eat everything you are served. Obviously if you are on the infinite variety plan and you get a dish you hate, you skip it and either go hungry or fill up on other items you were served.
If I were forced into the 8 standard meals, I would craftily try to design it so I could have good meals from a subset of each menu, thus increasing the variety in my consumption (for example, I might only eat the beans and rice from a Mexican meal one time, and the next I might only eat the side salad and chicken). I don’t know how the magic fairy would feel about this.
I’d take the 8. I could see running out of beef dishes I like in a year, and in five years I might end up having to eat stuff like lutefisk and kimchi. Plus, with my eating restrictions, I don’t eat a lot more than 8 different meals anyway.
Do I get salt and pepper? Can I break open and sprinkle my prescribed supplements (like curcumin and garlic) on my food?
If the fairy allows it, that’s a good way to go. Make one meal a triple-thick rare ribeye, with a quad helping of mashed potatoes and veggies of your choice, preceded by a huge “For 2+” salad and followed by some protean dessert like cookies. That would make at least 5 distinct meals. Add in what you do with the roasted chicken(s) Day Two and we have a theme.
I’d start inventing variations on the Turducken, but with pork and beef. Maybe some pasha’s feast of a cow, stuffed with a goat, stuffed with a Cornish game hen.
Yes to all. Or that’s what the fairy said when I tried to channel it.
Okay, I’m in for the 8 meal plan, then. I’d prefer not to have the weeks of organ meat ‘n’ okra that the infinite menu portends.
Whereas I am both a picky eater AND an adventurous one. Thus my difficulty…
Except all the meals make culinary sense, and you don’t have to eat everything (or anything, you can go hungry for a day). So one of your new people to talk to might be interested in stuff that bores you, but I don’t think you need to put up with the racist conversationalist.
I’d be okay meeting a new person every day, too. But never getting to see any of them again would be horrible, far more so than never eating the meal again.