As a child, I was a terribly picky eater. I turned up my nose at any unfamiliar dish and would spend many a night sitting at the dinner table locked in a battle of stubbornness with my parents, refusing to indulge even their most generous compromise offer — the one-bite rule. I would go so far as to even put the food in my mouth and chew it, but refuse to swallow, finally spitting it into my napkin, or sometimes, leaving the table at the end of a meal to dispose of the stores stuffed in my cheeks in the toilet.
In adulthood, I finally discovered the rewards on adventurous eating. I will try (almost) anything at least once, often more times, before deciding if it is a new love, something appetizing, edible, or not fit for my palate. The one food that I try at least once every few months that I just cannot force my taste buds to enjoy, or even tolerate, is raw tomato. Fortunately, I love the fruit in almost every cooked form it takes, but gaze longingly at those who can eat it like an apple, sprinkled with just a little salt. It looks so fresh, so juicy, but has an acidic flavor that I simply cannot stand. What a shame to have to say, “Sure, I’d love a BLT, just hold the T.” I’ll continue to try it through the years, and will hopefully appreciate its flavor someday.
Still, the length of the list of foods I adore has long since eclipsed that of the foods I dislike. I can now sum up those items I cannot stomach on a short roster, and many of them have as much to do with their textures as their flavor. I avoid melons of every variety; I don’t like watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew at all. Living in the South, it is such a shame that I don’t partake in juicy slices of ripe watermelon every summer with the rest of my family and friends. Almost as heretical in my region is my disdain for oysters, even those of the cooked variety. Included in this family of foods are mussels and clams. It’s the chewiness. It doesn’t matter how they are prepared, as I often like whatever they are cooked in, with, or on, it’s the texture of the little mollusks.
I have grown into a person who appreciates most vegetables, provided they are cooked appropriately. I like many raw and crunchy, sauteed, fried or grilled, whereas their boiled versions hit on another texture problem: snottiness (if that adjective can be appropriate for foods). I know I’m not the only one who has a problem with boiled squash, okra and eggplant. In a similar category, foods that can be rendered inedible by certain cooking methods: asparagus and greens. (The smell of what I call “mushy” asparagus makes me gag to this day. Literally.)
I detest water chestnuts for their supernatural crunchiness in the midst of softer foods. I tried calamari, but couldn’t get past the stringiness nor chewiness (the obvious form of the squid’s body and tentacles on the plate before me was another impassible obstacle). I don’t like radishes or beets, and I’m not sure why exactly. Radishes bite back too mush, and beets are, well, yucky. I am learning to appreciate many, many new (to me) varieties of peas and beans. I had a previous aversion to the mealiness of many of them. I recently had my mother-in-law’s boiled cabbage (loved it! and she told me her cooking method, so I’ll try to recreate it) and her mashed butternut squash (no, thanks, for the same reason I don’t like mashed sweet potatoes: sweet, cinnamony orange mush as a side dish. In fact, I couldn’t tell this apart from a sweet potato casserole at all).
In fact, I took great pleasure in all of the holiday cooking and eating. I made lasagna the first night, trying a new recipe that does not use ricotta, it has Romano and mozzarella instead, and rolls the ground beef into little herbed meatballs instead of adding it into the sauce. It was delicious, served with crusty garlic bread and a Caesar salad. While I was cooking (beware, those tiny, little meatballs take longer to prepare than you would think!), I served my stand-by appetizer, a quick-and-easy spinach and artichoke dip with some garlic and Parmesan pita chips. It was too quick and easy, perhaps, because our group of six inhaled it. The next morning, I made a frittata with red and green bell pepper (festive, don’t you think?), green onions and cheddar cheese. I cooked the Southern breakfast buffet stand-bys of hot and mild sausage patties to accompany it, which was a good thing, as the frittata recipe could have been doubled and would still have disappeared with no leftovers.
On Saturday, I baked. No holiday is complete with an array of goodies on the counters for people to munch on at will. I made cookies — chocolate chip, peanut butter and strawberry jam-filled shortbread. Friends brought more sweets — Rocky Road brownies, fudge and jalapeno pepper jelly. I had an appetizer on the counter every afternoon. Once it was a sharp cheddar cheese ball and crackers, another time was spicy sausage balls (big hit). I impressed with my second time to make Asian-inspired beef rolls with sweet chili sauce. That amuse-bouche preceded my beef stir-fry and hot and sour soup for dinner. One night’s dinner was seafood gumbo from a local restaurant (the third time we have purchased it from them to serve at our home — it is hands-down the best gumbo outside of Louisiana, even beating amazing seafood restaurants I have sampled all along the Gulf Coast). My in-laws cooked an amazing prime rib for Christmas dinner, accompanied by boiled cabbage, mashed squash, baked potatoes and salad. Another night, they provided scrumptious smoked ribs and salmon, potato salad and cole slaw. They also bought a country ham, which we sliced and browned for breakfast — great with eggs, grits and toast. Overall, we ate mass quantities of delicious foods. Yum.
I could go on and on — I have, in fact. This feels like the tip of the iceberg for my exploration of the best food has to offer. It can range from dishes like these, which are down-home comfort foods, to elegant delicacies I attempt at home, or, better yet, those we are served in some of the amazing restaurants our city has to offer. I cannot wait to put into effect one of my New Year’s resolutions: to try something new, revisit something worthy, or revise something needy from the vast array of food offerings available. I will not automatically settle into a revolving dinner schedule that requires mindless preparation and the same old ingredients week after week. This family will experience a variety of foods so that my two girls will not grow up pushing their plates away whenever something unfamiliar or green appears. Vive la food!
P.S. I have added an awesome food blog to my blogroll, and I expect more to follow. I love reading other people’s ideas, opinions and revelations on subjects of interest to me, even more so when the authors seem to be impossibly adorable.
