What type of person are you?

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When you see something different on a menu what do you think?


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GB

Chief Eating Officer
Joined
Jul 14, 2004
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25,510
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I was in a Chinese restaurant the other day. I was in the mood for soup. They had a number of different options. One was called Pickled Noodle with Pork. I though that sounded really different so I ordered it. It was delicious and I was very happy I took the chance on something new. It made me wonder how many people would read that soup name and think that sounds different so there is no way I am going to order it. What type of person are you?
 
Good point Katie. In this restaurant I was at the waitstaff is very hard to understand (for me at least) and it is very loud so I knew if I asked it would be next to impossible to understand the answer, but I did ask if there was egg in it. That would be a deal breaker for me. Thankfully there was none.
 
I like ordering new dishes but try to find out a bit about it first to make sure it is something that I have a decent chance of liking and hasn't got ingredients in that I can't eat. My main hesitation then is finances. Sometimes, I will go home and look for a recipe for the dish first of all. When I eat out, I always look for a mezze plate (or tasting plate) or something like tapas and yum cha. Excellent way to sample different dishes without spending too much. Also, I try to get a sample of my dining companions's dishes, normally successfully. When I make new friends, I get them to introduce me to new dishes too. So far the only dish that I have refused (without a dietary reason) has been chicken feet and that was only because they didn't look very well prepared.

I will eat offal, brains, raw food, deconstructed dishes, fusion food, whatever provided it sounds interesting. Although I do draw the line at food that uses meat/fish where it is likely the animal/fish won't have been well treated in the killing process. And I think I would have a bit of trouble with eating meats from animals that are seen as pets within my culture, eg cat and dog, however I don't judge other cultures that do this. It is all to do with how we are used to viewing our food I guess.
 
Definitely willing to try new stuff and I do often. I see restaurants as an opportunity to have foods that are new to me or food that I don't usually cook at home.

OTOH, my sister always orders the same dish at a restaurant, shrimp scampi at one restaurant, filet mignon at another, etc.
 
I love to try new stuff on the menu. Tonight I tried some lettuce wraps of chicken with peanut sesame sauce at BJ's Brewery. It was a heavenly dish.
 
Of course it depends upon the dish.

I would ask a bit about it. If it was smelts and chicken livers, well, I would have to be very trusting of the chef to attempt it.

But if it sounds interesting, will almost always try it.

Unless I am in one of those moods when I just need to have something I know.
 
With some of the aforementioned exceptions, I will try something new. But...I will not spend an arm and a leg if I am not sure about it.
 
I like to try new dishes, and there really aren't any restaurants in this area that offer things like chicken feet or tripe.
A lot also depends on the restaurant. There is a place down the road where I have never had anything that wasn't delicious, so I will try anything they have on the menu there.
 
i am always willing to try something new. in fact, that's what i look for when dining somewhere. now, i won't order the lobster special at a greasy spoon in kansas (i would in kennebunkport :)), but i try to order things that i've never had before that i think the place would do well.

i guess it stems from my childhood, where my best friends were of very different cultures. italian, jewish, asian, armenian, and of course, my own ancestry of irish and norwegian were all fantastic influences to me as a boy.

i distinctly remember going out with my asian-american friend's family to restaurants in ny's chinatown every february for new year's and having some of the weirdest albeit most delicious food any gringo ever tried. fish heads and crab claws floating around in soup is nothing short of totally cool to a 10 year old. the gross out factor of chinese snails in black bean sauce is only outdone by how tasty they are. so good you'd almost forget about the little red envelopes (ka-ching!) that all of the aunt's and uncles would bestow upon us.

now, sundays were for feasting at my italian american buddy's house. his mom would start cooking on saturday night, and we'd begin the pig out just after church on sunday. it was a real macho male bonding thing, with all of the men, mostly sicillians, sitting around and indulging in plates of everything from cheeses, breads, and salume while we watched a ballgame as the ladies bonded in the kitchen. then we'd all gather at the table to dig in to courses of salads, pastas, and finally the sunday gravy.
i won't even begin to tell you what an italian christmas is like. :pig:

my high school girl friend was jewish, of german descent, who's family kept kosher. in fact, they owned a kosher meat products company. eating at their house was an experience and a half. watching all of the preparation as her mom worked her kitchen as oddly but efficiently as could be was only half of the fun. the whole house would suddenly stop and come together for the meal, and a truely hectic pace slowed to a polite, reserved, respectful and intelligent conversation of the issues of the day as we enjoyed the incredible things that her mom and dad prepared. it was quite a change of pace from my gravy stained/open belt buckle italian sundays, i'll tell you what.

having armenian friends meant getting to celebrate certain holidays twice. such as our christmas, and their theophany, i think it was called. getting gifts on new years eve was always a bonus, along with some of the best breads and desserts the world has ever seen. "hatz" off to the armenians...;) also, it was the only time that i ate so many vegetables in a dish without ever knowing that they were there. all i knew was that it was good.

i'm very glad and truely thankful that i was able to experience these things; too many to even remember let alone write them all down. but these events very early in my life has given me both an appreciation and respect for the diversity of all mankind, as well as a desire to continue to seek them out, try to understand them, and then eat them... umm, i mean enjoy the fruits of their traditions. :chef:
 
I clicked I`ll try it, on the proviso that it`s something I Can eat and it`s cooked properly, H*ll yeah, I`m game for almost anything :)
 
My wife and I spent a long weekend in Barcelona one year for our weedyverse.

On the last night we went to a real nice restaurant and one particular dish caught my eye - translated into English it was pigs trotter in some kind of sauce. "Yeah - that sounds cool" says I - and I order it while the missus plays it safe and gets a steak.

My dinner arrives and it's basically just a plate of flobbly fat. Not an ounce of meat to be seen - just FAT. I mean it was kinda tasty, but after 2 mouthfuls I was ready to vomit into a bucket.

All the time my darling wife is laughing her head off and tucking into a really nice steak.

Oh well - it still hasn't put me off trying out new things though.
 
Not only am I the "haven't tried that before, must have it" person, I'm contagious.

Even at home, I'm always trying to experiment with new ingredients and ideas to create interesting stuff. As such, The Lady of the House ends up as my guinea pig. Sometimes not voluntarily heh.
 
I love to try new things that I don't or couldn't possibly make at home. Having said that I don't go to the point of extreme. Nothing totally crazy. If I am in a nice restaurant with a very creative chef then I am game but wouldn't do that just anywhere.
 
It totally depends on my mood ... if I'm just out grazing (where I'm looking for something new to try) or out for something specific. However, there have been times my appetite was whetted for one thing ... and something new caught my eye that I just had to try.
 
As a chef of country clubs and upscale restaurants I have tried most food known to man and liked most of it, and being some what a fan of food history I have learned a lot about other cultures food experience and have tried to duplicate some of it so if it walks or crawl es or flies through the air I will try to eat it one time twice if it is good
 
except for baloot, I'm game for almost anything and am always trying something new. My only problem is that if I like it, I have to try to re-create it at home. Sometimes, that can get pricey, or at the very least, time consuming when I should be doing something else.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
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