Evolution of a Picky Eater

It doesn't take too long for someone to hang around me before they realize I'm not an adventurous eater. To this day, my mother says she doesn't know how I survived childhood because I hardly ate anything.

My oldest friends will recall the days when I would insist on going to Casa Ole for Tex-Mex, only to order chicken wheels off the children's menu. I didn't eat quesadillas until I was a senior in high school, and it was another year or so before I would touch enchiladas. Only in the last year have I started eating salsa; green sauce within the last 6 months. This is quite odd for a South Texas girl.

I also never ate hamburgers as a child; I kid you not when I say my first hamburger was from a McDonald's in Munich, Germany as a high school senior. My friend on the trip somehow wound up with two hamburgers, probably because she didn't speak German and the worker didn't speak English so BH just pointed at the menu to order. BH didn't want both and, considering that I had eaten a half can of Pringles for dinner the night before, I was feeling more adventurous than usual. I still have never eaten a McDonald's hamburger in the US, although I did have one in France during college.

The most dramatic of taste evolution happened in college. One reason is the rule I have for ordering food: if there are three things on a dish I don't eat, I will only ask for two to be left off. This is actually why I now eat eggs; one place in A&M's cafeteria's offered a chef salad and I was more averse to avocado and tomato than egg. I don't know why I have this rule, I just feel uncomfortable asking for three modifications. Since I was away from home while this was going on, I often surprised my parents with what I came home eating. One weekend when my brother and I came home, my mom was roasting green beans, squash, onions, and bell peppers in the oven. I walked in and said "ooh, veggies...yum!" My mom looked at me like I was crazy.

Another reason for the rapid expansion of my palette during college is my friend CT. While we were roommates in France, we cooked a handful of meals in the tiny kitchenette of our even tinier flat and when we returned to the States, CTwould invite me over to her house for dinner (or I would happen to go visit her around dinner...). CT has a rule, too: try everything or you won't get invited back. Everyone follows this rule because everyone wants CT to keep cooking! Needless to say, this rule has expanded the list of foods I'll eat.

I was thinking the other day about how far I've come in the foods that I like, because CT and I ordered an interesting appetizer last weekend: shaved brussel sprouts salad.

And it was good!