Growing up I was always a picky eater, there were only a handful of foods I would eat. When I got older and food trucks became a craze that's when I decided I wanted to explore different flavours. I realized I shouldn't be afraid of what I was eating, I should be excited to explore the different flavours and how they work together to hit certain parts of my tongue. That's when I started LOVING food!
I wanted to explore more and growing up in a traditional Italian house I've had great home cooked meals made from scratch, and nothing compares to that. However I needed more! Theres that saying "I eat to live" and "I live to eat", I defiantly live to eat. There is nothing more exciting then traveling and eating different foods. There is a thing I do when I travel to a new place and try their food, every restaurant I go to I get the exact same side dish as the previous place. For instance when I traveled to Nashville, TN for the first time, with every meal I ordered i had a side of baked beans. Baked beans are sometimes baked but they are usually made like a stew in a sauce. Its a southern staple so I used this dish as my main objective. By doing this I was able to compare different flavours by eating one dish. I had so much fun doing this experiment, it made me appreciate everyone's take on these traditional baked beans.
Its true that you acquire taste over time, but I really think it is the mind set we have before we are willing to try that new food. I recently went on a long two week road trip with my traveling buddy and I was explaining to her how excited I get to try new food. You get to explore different parts of your tongue that you may have never experienced before, and she went on to say some foods that she did not like, I stopped her and asked why she doesn't like that food and she said "I've never tried it before ". I told her that common phrase you used to hear as a child when you told you'r parent that you didn't like something, "How do you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?" And it is so TRUE! How do you know? Well you don't unless you try. So then that's when I went on and told her about my experiment of my baked beans test. Where I have officially found the best baked beans in the south and it's at a little place called 400 degrees in Nashville Tennessee.
We did this experiment through out our two weeks on the road and when that road took us to Nashville, TN, I asked her what objective she going to use in her experiment? She then told me "baked beans". I was shocked that was one of the foods she told me she didn't like and I said "wow why that?" and she said "because we are here to explore and try new things", I was so happy hear that she was willing to step out of her comfort zone and to have a more open mind of food, even if it was just beans. The whole time she was eating her baked beans she would say "I can't believe I like beans now!" I laughed and said "I know they are delicious".
Opening up you're mind even just a little every time you try a new item of food, will then allow you to eat new things and enjoy the different flavours instead of, thinking of food as this bad thing but to think of it as something to explore!