This is me. Also, I tend to get bent when picky eaters at the table are still poring over the menu after the waiter has come back once or twice. Just pick something already!
About the only thing I’ve had that I really wouldn’t try again is guinea pig. It’s just a big rat and no tastier than any other grilled meat. Other than that, I’m up for most foods. I spent some time in Istanbul with a picky eater and it was such a drag, we’d walk by some great looking side walk cafe and it was like trying to get a toddler to agree to try something.
It’s very liberating. I am having a tasting menu tonight by a chef who’s known for being adventurous and inventive. I am sure it will include offal of some sort, and marrow or blood. I have no worries or anxiety at all about what I might encounter.
I will eat most anything, but I am somewhat sensitive to spiciness so in some restaurants, I need to order the dish “moderate heat”. You’re not going to find me eating infamously hot chili peppers, but I love moderate spiciness in Thai or Indian food.
I also will not eat meat that is alive when I eat it, but I don’t expect that to really ever pose a problem. I’ve heard of people eating live insects or live shrimp, but never seen it done or been to a place where this was offered.
I will happily go to any restaurant and find something I will eat. I have gone to super-expensive tasting menu restaurants, where the chef picks all the courses. I will try any new meat, any ethnic cuisine, whatever.
I understand allergies/religious objections to food, and even pickiness, but not people who are obnoxious about it. Exhibit A is a relative. This guy will go to a seafood restaurant, order chicken (fine), and then go on and on about the sanitary problems with fish and why he’d never consider it. He’ll send his chicken back if it is bone-in (OK, I guess), then discuss anatomy and why meat shouldn’t have bones still attached (huh?). He will make disparaging remarks involving eating cats if you tell him you are going to any non-European restaurant. Pretty much any food is fair game for these remarks. It’s really, really annoying and makes me want to sit as far away from him as possible at any occasion involving food. And pretty much any other time.