Mustard, celery, dried onions, baked potatoes. Nasty. My taste buds just didn’t agree with those textures, tastes, and ingredients. It wasn’t something I could help, right? It’s just who I was. Those were the foods that I did. not. like.
Then one day a few years ago I stopped and thought about it. Do I really not like mustard? Or did some bad experience as a kid just ingrain in my mind that I didn’t like it? Had it just become a natural reaction to see mustard and cringe? So I decided upon an experiment. I would eat the mustard, but with the mindset that I indeed did like it. I squirted it on my hotdog, took a bite, and was amazed by how great it tasted. My mindset changed, and now I’ll put mustard on sandwiches and hotdogs all the time. It was all in my head!
In the coming months I had similar experiences with dried onions and baked potatoes. And just last week I found a piece of celery on my plate, changed my mindset, and ate up. And it was good. Of course, eating pigs blood, fish eyes, and frog skin in Taiwan helped me soften up a bit, but it was really just my change in attitude that led these “detestable” foods back into my life. Now, I proudly brag to my mother that there is no food that I don’t like. All foods are good and offer some kind of value. Why miss out on a unique taste just because of a silly unconscious decision?
So lately I’m on this big kick: You can like any food if you decide to. It’s ALL in your head. And so now everyday when I hear someone whine about not wanting tomatoes on their burger, or wanting bottled water because the tap water is just not the same, or about hating diet but loving regular soda, or about someone refusing to eat sausage on their pizza or picking the mushrooms off---I just think in my head, “dude, get over it. It’s all in your mind.” Just decide to like things and you will!
Bon’appetit.
you are a funny boy, trav.
ReplyDeletehaha i totally agree that you can change your mind about foods--i taught myself to like cottage cheese, sauerkraut, and mustard--but i don't think its too terrible if there are just a handful of foods you just don't like, as long as you're polite at dinner parties, etc.
and fun fact for you: children are usually the pickiest eaters because their taste buds are more sensitive than adult taste buds, so they taste things differently just about every time they try it, which is why kids need to try something about eight times before they realize they actually do like it. there's my FCD major workin' for ya!