Trying Stuff

I'm a foodie.  There's not much else I can add to that statement.  I have a palate that welcomes a large variety of different types of food (and drink), and it's quite fun having one.  Sure, these days I have limited myself to certain things as I get older and either can't eat particular items, or I'm just trying to look after myself.  But from time to time, I'm keen on having a few naughty items to see if they're good.

I wasn't always like this though.  Growing up, I shunned a lot of foods that were rather important.  When I was the right age to make my own eating decisions, I pretty much filtered out vegetables, etc, altogether.  When I would go to Subway in my teens, I used to get the Seafood Sensation (which I've discovered while researching for this blog, that apparently, it has been discontinued from their menu), and as I would have the "sandwich artist" (cringeworthy title, by the way) make my sub, it would end up being white bread, seafood mix (which was basically surimi), cheese...and that's it.  Did I get my money's worth?  No.  Was it their fault?  Also no.  Did I care?  Definitely no.  I was happy with what I got, and if it wasn't filling enough, I'd ask for extra seafood to make it go further.  It didn't end there.  At McDonald's, I used to have my Filet-O-Fish without tartar sauce (well, actually I still do - I hate that sauce - it's the pickle), my Cheeseburgers and Quarter Pounders without onion and pickle, McChicken with extra cheese and without lettuce or mayonnaise.  I was (or am) a strange person.  So, what changed since then?  Simple - my darling wife.

When Aliesha and I were dating, we went to our friend, Adelle's house when she still lived with her parents.  There was a group dinner planned while Adelle's parents were out for the evening.  The ladies that attended decided to cook a special meal for all the guys that came along.  When it came to dishing up and serving, I noticed ingredients on my plate that I hadn't been eating at this point of my life - eggs...

Flashback to when I was either 5 or 6.  When I was at school one day, one of the girls in my class told me that there was a chicken in my stomach (she probably saw me eating an egg or something - I can't remember).  For some reason, this made me feel kind of ill and it put me off eggs, basically for the next 20 or so years...until this night out at Adelle's house.

Back to the dinner.  I saw the eggs on my plate.  Deep inside, I wanted to say that I don't eat them, but at the same time I didn't want to be rude.  So, I ate them anyway.  And you know what?  I actually enjoyed them.  It was this moment in time where it got me thinking that, maybe, some of these things I've been neglecting all those years aren't so bad after all.  Therefore, I was willing to try some of them to see if I felt any different as an adult.  Long story short, I'm still testing the waters with some food items, but I can conclude that most of what I've gone back to has become welcome in my fridge and/or freezer.  But you can keep your brussel sprouts and mushrooms though.  Screw those ones and the harvester they came in from.

Keeping with my taste testing, I found myself becoming inspired sometime in the late 2000's, while watching an Internet series called "Brad Tries...", which is a part of the network (Stoned Gremlin Productions) that brought us the Cinema Snob.  In this series, Brad Jones taste tests some quirky, weird and often funny food and drink items (as well as ones that aren't as quirky) and, depending on what it is, it sometimes led to funny reactions.  This made me want to do a similar series, so by the end of 2010, with the help of Aliesha and our friend, Gary, we started making one called "Trying Stuff".  This series would last up until the end of 2012 (an unofficial ending anyway - we still haven't tried a particular item on camera yet, with the hopes of making that our final episode).

You can view the entire series of "Trying Stuff" on my website at this link right here!

As a result of my foodie/drinky (is that a thing?) adventures, I've managed to pick up a bit of a collection of bottles and packaging over the years.  I may have to take a photo of everything that's accumulated, but right now it's not an easy task (long story), so that one will have to wait for another day.

In conclusion, if you think there's anything out there you think I should try sometime, let me know in the comments section and I will have a look into it. 👍