Mmm's the Word

I have recently discovered a liking for sliced pumpkin. It has that nice gord-y taste and with a bit of salt it is nearly like combining the taste of squash with the texture of mango. And, I admit, there are some Korean foods that I have dared to try and ended up liking – Korean pancakes, for starters (safe enough). Rice cakes. These are not the rice cakes you and I are familiar with – the Quaker Oats, I’m-on-a-diet-and-I-need-a-snack-that-tastes-like-cardboard rice cakes. No. Korean rice cakes are long tubes of compressed rice. They look like mozzarella cheese sticks. In the frying pan, with a little bit of honey, they’re not bad. Korean curry is something else I don’t mind having every few weeks. It is rather fruity and not very heavy. However, I still prefer an Indian curry to any other.

I try to be open about food, but I have a certain distaste for things that make me squirm. Packaged dried squid. Vacuum-sealed dried fish that you can rip apart with your teeth like jerky. The brains of any animal. Chicken feet. Stinky tofu. Fruit that looks like a Nerf ball. There are some things regarding food that I will never understand.

And somebody please tell me what is so great about Sushi. It has become this craze, this trend, this popular dish that everyone raves about. They hunt through cities to find the best sushi restaurant. They go out of their way to spend outrageous money on such a simple meal. They consider it a treat. Seriously, people. It is raw fish and rice with seaweed.

Unless it is traditional fish ‘n chips a-la-U.K., I’d rather not eat fish at all, much less raw fish. That said, I’m going to go ahead and be a hypocrite and say I love raw oysters on the half-shell. Really cold, just a squeeze of lemon. But honestly. Sushi? Someone explain that to me.

I’m sure that now that I’ve made this speech about sushi, in a year or so I’ll develop a taste for it and become on of those sushi-loving snobs. But for now, it’s not for me. So, I am a bit of a picky eater. Not too picky, I don’t think. Not enough to annoy people completely. But picky enough to be called “a bit of a picky eater.” Quintessentially, I’ve learned to accept that my taste buds are not inclined to many Asian foods, but favor rather more Mediterranean or Middle Eastern cuisine. And, of course, I am desperately fond of Mexican food, too. Really, anything starting with an “M.”