I've always been leery of new food. I was incredibly picky as a kid, and still am to some degree. Vegetables were gross, and seafood was disgusting. Don't even get me started on "touchy food" like casseroles. I basically hated everything but bread, cheese, and fruit. Thank goodness for the don't-leave-the-table-til-your-plate's-clean rule! I wouldn't have been healthy otherwise.
I'm not that bad now, but I'm still not an adventurous eater. I was talking about this with a friend one day (we tend to talk about food a lot), and we made a list of all the food we didn't like. After jotting everything down, we realized something. Half our lists were made up of things we hadn't tried in years! There were even things on there we'd never tasted (stuff we just assumed didn't taste good because of looks). Thus was born the "gag list". We decided that we were going to try everything on our lists, as soon as we got the chance. It's been awesome so far. Three things I discovered:
1. I loved most of the stuff I thought I hated! Taste buds change. Who knew!
2. Trying new food is fun. It only takes 10 seconds of courage to jam something into your mouth, and it's almost always worth it. Even if you don't like it, at least you'll know for sure.
3. I was too quick to use the word hate. Yes, some of the things on my list didn't turn into favorites, but that's okay. Everyone has likes and dislikes. But hate is a strong word. Half the stuff I "hated" wasn't bad at all. Bad is eating dirt. Mayo does not taste like dirt. Do I love mayo? Nope. But it's not dirt.
Are you adventurous or selective when it comes to food? Try making your own gag list sometime, you might surprise yourself!
