You never know until you try…

I didn't know I would love salt on my watermelon until I tried it!

A post I read a while back rang a bell for me. I tend to like routine, comfortable things, and simple foods.

I grew up in a lower middle class family in New England. My mother didn’t like to cook which I suspect came from her never really being taught. She was an orphan and grew up in foster homes. So our food was simple fare like casseroles, goulash, beans & hot dogs, and hamburgers. Canned soup, canned corned beef hash, and canned Dinty Moore Stew were other options. If a big dinner was being cooked, like a roast, it was my father who cooked it.

I never had fried chicken until I was 16 or 17 and went on a day trip with my boyfriend’s parents. I never had a taco until I was in my late 20s. I never had a pizza with anything more than cheese until my mid 20s. Simple foods…

I have expanded over the years. My pizza now has everything on it, I’ve added a couple of Chinese and Cuban dishes to my likes. Even jerk pork was enjoyed on a cruise. Some of my food expansion was thanks to a former co-worker. We often traveled out of state on the same projects. He knew my aversion to trying new foods so before he’d order, he’d ask me if I had ever tried a dish before. If not, he’d order it so I could try it. That’s how I discovered my love for good calamari. Thank you, Lynn. You are missed.

Not trying new things isn’t just food related. I tend to be overly cautious about new activities as well. I don’t consider myself to be an adventurous person (some would argue that since I toured the country solo on my motorcycle as a 58 year old widow, and I moved to Ecuador for two years with my current husband, but these were all well researched and overly planned activities).

This explains my over planning and researching for our next month European vacation in 2027. We will be visiting a lot of new to us countries. I have committed to trying different foods, at least a taste. Europe should be interesting!

My husband is my encourager and the cruises help me experience new things. If I don’t like the food I ordered, I can ask for something else. I can pick and choose activities at various ports around the world. That lets me have some control, and control is a topic for another day.

Do you like to try new things?