What's it like to be able to eat anything

Cafe Society
1

As inspired by JoeyP’s commentinthis thread, I’m starting the “What’s it like to be able to eat anything?” thread.

I’ll kick it off…
I don’t have any food aversions, allergies or sensitivities that make it impossible or ill-advised to eat anything in particular. What I do have is some ingredients and foods that I don’t like. For example, I don’t much care for bananas or banana flavored things, raw tomatoes, raw onions, and that gamy meat / organ meat flavor.

I also have a spice/hotness threshold above which dishes seem to lose a lot of flavor and just burn like hell. It’s somewhere upward of dishes with raw jalapenos, but not too far- maybe in vindaloo territory somewhere.

Those things aside, I can and usually do eat anything and everything I can find, at least once. I figure that the risk is minimal to trying something new- at best, I find something I really like, and at worst, I end up getting a hamburger on the way home from the restaurant and am out a few bucks. Chances are though, that I’ll break even (the new dish isn’t any better than other stuff I’ve had), or I’ll like the new dish even more. I’d guess it breaks down like this when trying new foods- 35% of the time I like it and would order it again over other things on the menu, 45% of the time I like it, but wouldn’t order it over something else, and 20% of the time I don’t like it much. With those odds, it’s worth it to me to generally try everything on the menu before I start repeating, unless I’m just looking for comfort food.

I tend to look at foreign travel as a huge opportunity to try things I haven’t tried before- I make a point to try stuff I haven’t had before and often don’t even know what it is. Why go thousands of miles to a different country and eat the same stuff? It seems kind of stupid and short-sighted to me. Someone there thinks it tastes good- maybe I will too?

That being said, I’ve had some spectacular strikeouts. For example, in a great little restaurant in Florence, I ordered some “Tuscan bruschetta”, not really knowing what it was, and ended up with a bunch of pieces of bread with some funky liver pate stuff on it. Not my thing! The steak and the ribollita were terrific however. Kroket and bitterballen in the Netherlands were strange as well, and I’m not sure I’d get more if given the chance.

What about the rest of you? How do you feel about eating everything / being an adventurous eater?

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I won’t say I’ll eat anything, but I’m always on the lookout for new food choices. If I see something on a menu I never tried, I’m always tempted to try it.

For instance, I went to a local Chinese restaurant that specialized in authentic Shanghai food, and saw Tong-Po pork, which was described as “stewed pork belly,” something that normally I would avoid. But it was also described as “Significant dish in authentic cooking,” so I gave it a try. I was even a bit dubious when it came, but once I tasted it, it was excellent.

There are some flavors I don’t care for, but I’ve had great luck in trying unfamiliar foods in good restaurants.

3

I changed my palate. I used to avoid foods. I didn’t even like garlic bread! Then I was forced by politeness to eat spinach and tofu for the first time. It was good! I learned I liked almost any vegetable if it was drenched in enough butter. I’ve started eating onions, which I abhorred. And fresh guacamole. I eat more Indian food, which I once hated even the smell of. I eat weird kinds of sushi. Cheese plate? I’ll try each one. Goat, sheep, buffalo, whatever. I just… grew up as an eater. Part of it is eating at better restaurants which have better food. Olive Garden Italian sucks, Assaggi Osteria is delectable. Like bump, I’m not afraid to spend money and get something I don’t like, and I’m not afraid to go hungry, and I’m not afraid to go places other people like. I just get excited.

Things I hated taste good now. I wish I could explain it. I still don’t eat bread or pasta or potatoes. And I still can’t abide spiciness. Stupid genetics.

4

Too add to the pros of being able to eat anything there are also cons. My dad is one of those people that can eat anything, but it’s also made him a bit overweight. He’s a ‘grazer’ that is, he kinda just eats things that are out as he walks past them. Normally not a problem for most people. “Hey, pretzels, I’ll have a handful” no big deal right. But he can say “Hey, some food I really don’t like” and over the course of the next hour, eat the whole bowl. He might not like it, but it’s out and it really doesn’t bother him. Yes, that’s a self control issue, but if there’s a food I like, I’ll eat a ton of it if you leave it out. OTOH, leave a bowl of nuts or some sort of mayo based dip…won’t even touch it.

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I enjoy tasting menus at restaurants, especially the ones that don’t tell you what you are going to get. The adventure in trying new things and the surprise of not knowing what’s next is great fun.

Typically they ask about allergies and aversions at the start.

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I don’t think I could bring myself to go to a place like that.

In Milwaukee we have a restaurant called Odd Duck. No (online) menu since it changes all the time. From what I can tell, they just sort of cook whatever they want and change it up whenever they find new stuff on the market to make. It’s a great idea and I’d love to go there, if only their website would just say something like “Don’t worry, we always have burgers”. I really do like trying new food, but I have to know there’s something safe to fall back on. Also, from what I’ve read of the online reviews, they seem to lean pretty heavily on seafood. I don’t do seafood.

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So what? What’s the big disaster if you have nothing to fall back on in terms of eating?

8

I love doing that too, sachertorte. One time I went to an Indian restaurant with a 12 item vegetarian tasting menu. All the items had beets. I hate beets. I was disappointed, but it was a funny story. And I certainly didn’t starve to death.

One of my favorite restaurants in DC, Open Kitchen, is the hippie, local-grown, cook whatever’s in season, type of place. Everything is fantastic. The worst part is finding something you like, say the cauliflower mash, and having it not be there next time.

9

Well, it sure is handy when you’re traveling in foreign countries.

In a previous job I was in Taiwan, Malaysia, and The Philippines several times and never once had to worry what they were serving me. In fact it was all incredibly delicious.

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While I can eat pretty much everything, there are things I won’t eat, and some things that I avoid. I won’t eat oysters, regardless of how they’re prepared. I avoid things that are bitter like Belgian endive and spiky greens. I can eat them, but it’s unpleasant. I don’t like cooked spinach, but will eat it if it’s well-hidden. I detest beets and will not knowingly eat them. I love peanuts, but have trouble digesting them now, so I avoid them. But no allergies, which I’m thankful for.

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I ate a spicy dish at a Korean restaurant recently and the waitress asked me how spicy I wanted it on a scale of 3 to 10. I chose 5 thinking it wouldn’t be that bad. It was HOT!! I’m thinking a 10 would have put me in the hospital. With that, I will say the food was very good though.

That’s pretty much my feeling also.

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Then I sit there starving while everyone I came with is eating and I feel like a picky eating idiot because I can’t find just one thing on the menu that I can choke down. OTOH, I really don’t have a problem telling my friends, ahead of time, that I don’t care for a particular restaurant, but let’s try this other place.

I should mention, that I’m picky, but not boring. I’ll try new foods, so long as they aren’t comprised of foods I know I don’t like (as the major ingredient). I’ll go into a Mexican restaurant without having any idea of their menu (they’re all pretty much the same though), but a Mongolian place…I don’t even know what that means. Asian in general never worked for me and if all my friends are going out for Hibachi, I’ll meet them at the bar afterwards…no big deal, I just don’t want to feel like a 5th wheel all night while I’m sipping on my water.

13

Why does eating something you don’t like require it to be “choked down” or else starve? We all sometimes have to eat something that doesn’t appeal to us just because that’s what is in front of us. Why is it such a big deal to have to eat something that you don’t like?

14

Yeah, I remember the first time I pulled a face at the dinner table as a kid. You’d have thought I pissed in the entree, my parents were so mad. I’ve certainly had my share of restaurant disappointments. I eat somewhere between a half and two/thirds and call it a day. And now I know that I either don’t like that thing or how the restaurant prepared that thing. I’ve always found, the more I stress to make sure something is Just Right, the more inevitable and crushing the disappointment is.

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But do the pleasant surprised outweigh the disappointments? I’d have to say that for me, the pleasant surprises far outweigh the disappointments.

I’ve definitely had stuff I don’t like- something called “Tuscan bruschetta” at a little restaurant in Florence was nasty- like some sort of liver spread on bread that smelled like dog food and tasted… well, like I imagine liver flavored dog food does. Not my favorite thing. However, on the whole, our trip to Italy got a huge thumbs-up in terms of food. Had I been only willing to stick to the tried and true, which in Italy would have been cheese pizza, spaghetti with marinara, and sandwiches, I’d never have had pasta alla amatriciana, which is one of my favorite things ever. It’s not even particularly exotic- it’s cured pork jowl (guanciale; kind of like a richer, porkier pancetta or salt pork) fried up with onions and then mixed with rustic-style tomato sauce, cooked a bit and served with bucatini (sort of like thicker, hollow spaghetti). Absolutely divine, but I’d have never had it otherwise.

16

That depends on how much you don’t like it. I find the tast of bell peppers utterly disgusting; if I inadvertantly take a bite of food that had peppers cooked in it, it’s all I can do to keep myself from spitting it out, and I damn sure won’t be eating any more of it. This is not the same thing as ordering a new dish and just being disappointed that it doesn’t taste as good as you hoped. In those situations, I will eat it, no big deal.

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There’s ‘don’t like’ and there’s ‘has texture issues, associations, or other issues that mean I’ll gag’. There are a lot of things I can’t eat because they’re too bland and soft and after a while I literally can’t swallow them. I don’t like to deal with that, especially in front of other people.

I don’t like over cooked meat, but I can eat it. I can’t eat oatmeal.

And it has nothing to do with how hungry I am or not. Often times if I’m hungry, it’ll make it worse. (Which is so much fun to deal with. I’ll come home really nauseous and want to eat something bland like rice or toast, and literally can’t swallow it. My body hates me sometimes.)

I’m sure other people have their own issues to deal with.

I won’t say I’m an adventurous eater. I’m cheap, which is a big part of it. I don’t like to waste money and food. In principle, I’ll try anything once, but if something smells bad, looks gross, or is too expensive, I probably won’t.

I often say, if bachelor chow was an option, I would eat that for every day meals and just eat fun stuff when I’m out with friends or feel like it (not often). Food isn’t inherently fun or special to me. It’s often a chore to get done as quickly as possible.

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Actually you might like a Mongolian place. At least at the one here, you pick out your own ingredients and hand it to the cook to cook it for you on this big round grill thing. It’s really neat.

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A wok?

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No, a flat, circular grilling surface, anywhere from 18 inches to six feet in diameter.