I am scared to try foods that I have never eaten before. First of all, I am afraid of wasting my hard earned money. I am on a fairly tight budget, and when I buy something that I end up NOT liking the tastes of..it infuriates me to no end. I am especially scared of trying new ethnic foods. If I am visiting a friend’s home, I really do NOT want to offend them by not liking the food they cooked. Yes, it is probably delicious to them, but sometimes, our tastebuds require us to acquire the taste.

For years, I have hated the tastes of fish. The only type I can stand is fried catfish, the rest just leaves an awful metallic taste in my mouth. I have tried to eat it soooo many times, but sometimes others just don’t understand, that forcing me to eat it just can’t make the bad taste in my mouth go away. I also really like “real” Mexican food, not simply Tex-Mex.

A friend invited a group of us friends over to eat with he, his parents, and siblings. I can honestly say, it was the best Mexican food I have ever eaten. A lot of real Mexican food doesn’t traditionally use a lot, if any cilantro, which I am highly allergic to. We ate fresh cheese enchiladas with mole sauce hot enough to make steam come from your ears. And…oh my, traditional Mexican tamales..I was in HEAVEN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamales . It’s funny, that things I take for granted..they eat daily. And the only other place I have eaten tamales that good is this old black man in the town where my grandparents lived that has made them as long as my mom can remember. When mentioning to my Hispanic friends about making pot roast or meatloaf, they have no idea what that is..and my friends are too scared to try it. I will not force them LOL. More for greedy little me then hehe.

As to CS, I have offered NUMEROUS times to cook him food. His response is always the same, “but I don’t know if I like it and if I don’t like it, I will not want to eat it.” He is quite scared of a lot of American food, and tells me that it doesn’t mix with his digestive system because it is simply too different from what he has always eaten. That being said..we do eat a lot of pizza, Taco Bell and Sonic together LOL. We were talking about catfish one day, and he said he did not like it the one time he ate it. I told him he hasn’t tried mine…that perhaps he would..since there is no good catfish place here in this city. I told him I would save him a piece or two next time I cook it..so we’ll see if he’ll be brave. http://www.chitterlings.com/catfish.html .

That being said, I have been terrified to try Indian food. The stuff at the grocery store my pharmacy is in looks HORRIBLE. After discussing it with CS, he also mentioned not to eat that stuff. That it is not authentic, and does NOT taste right, besides looking horrible. The stuff at the real Indian food store looked wonderful, but I will have to be careful because of that cilantro aka coriander allergy that I possess. I don’t know, but I suppose I will also have to get my gumption up on this. http://www.indianfoodforever.com/ .

For any longterm relationship of ours to eventually work, this will be a compromise that we will have to make one day. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. And for anyone with suggestions on getting past this point, I am ALL ears ..or rather eyes..on the page that is

Today, I had an adventure. For the first time ever, I went into an ethnic food store. I went with my CS to Bangla-Pak, an Indian food store. We have only 2 very small Indian foodstores in my city, so we drove about 20 minutes to the other store in a nearby city. CS has been there frequently because that is where he and his Indian friends go to buy authentic Indian food. I was excited. Earlier in the day, we had had a conversation about Indian food, and what all it entails. I, myself, have never eaten it.

I was like a kid in a candy shop looking at everything and asking about everything. I think I now MUST try the lemon and lime pickles, aka in English, pickled lemons and limes. He showed me the names of spices and I told him what they were called in English. The place sells HUGE bags of rice at a lot better prices that I expected. Also, they sold fresh chicken. I was totally excited and told CS that I would definitely go back with him. They sell fresh chicken cut every which way, but at a totally cheaper rate than most of the local supermarkets. Also, I definitely now want to try chutney and curry. I saw what REAL curry actually looked like. The stuff in the supermarket that my pharmacy is located within, sells some Indian food that looks horrible. I told CS about it, and he giggled and said NOT to eat that stuff, that it was as bad as it looked. I also would LOVE to try the frozen tortillas that have the onions, potatoes, etc already made into them.

I was hoping to find fresh Lychees..but alas, I will have to make a trip to the Asian food market in another nearby city that I know that carries them. CS actually had never eaten them and didn’t know what they were, so I will definitely have to get him to try them. My grocery store just started carrying longans, and I am super excited about that.

The only strange thing about the experience was that I felt like I was being stared at. I was the only white looking person there, and the whole strip-mall complex was entirely Indian-based. I am not sure if it was a good thing or a bad. Later we went to a low cost grocery store for fresh fruit and vegetables that were better priced than the Bangla-Pak.

The only downfall is that I had to explain to CS about my food allergy to coriander aka cilantro. I am not sure he entirely understands what it does to me, that I go into anaphylactic shock. I told him it closes my throat, so he specifically did make sure I didn’t get near it when he was shopping for it. I am curious to find out that if I eat coriander seeds cooked into stuff, if I will have the same reaction I have to the leaves themselves. When I eat fresh carrots, I have an allergic reaction, but once cooked and in VERY tiny quantities, am usually okay. Even cilantro cooked causes the throat closure, so, I am just going to have to try and make it myself through the good ready made meals that CS pointed out to me. Only one way to find out..but I will be careful.