Experience #8 Sushi

Anyone who knows me knows that I will never be a food connoisseur. To come within ten feet of that definition, I’d have to be willing to try new foods.

I’m not. I’m more of the, I’ll stick to what I know because I don’t even like most of the foods I force myself to eat due to nutrition. (Candy does not have nutritional value, unfortunately.) Why add more items to that list of foods I won’t eat?

I wouldn’t label myself picky, per se, but there is a running joke at my mom’s house about fine china needing to be made as divider plates because I don’t like my food to touch. On Christmas and Thanksgiving, I can be found eating out of a Styrofoam divider plate because there are too many types of food to try, and they can’t fit in a plate without touching each other. My mom always makes sure she has them on hand, though sometimes she tries to use her china in her china cabinet.

My mom also reminds me that when I was a teenager she’d make real, homemade hamburgers for everyone, but she’d have to take out a frozen soy burger for me since I wouldn’t eat the ground meat.

The list of food I don’t like is very long, so when I added sushi to my list of experiences for the year, I knew I’d need a little push. Perhaps someone to shove it down my mouth while I closed my eyes and attempted not to breath until the experience was over.

So I was introduced to sushi by an expert, someone who lived in Japan for a long time and was very good with chopsticks and quite patient with my lack of coordination.

And I have to say after all that, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. No gagging or eyes closing there. I’m not saying that I’m going to rush back, but every now and then might not be so bad.

Surprisingly, I found some of it, like the eel, to be very good, but others like salmon didn’t go down very well because of the texture.

The biggest obstacle was chopsticks. If I had to eat with those every day, I’d be half the size I am now and starving. If I ever choose to diet, I’ll impose chopsticks on myself and losing weight shouldn’t be an issue. My instructor was kind and patient though, and maybe if I practice for eight years I’ll get the hang of it.

All in all, it got me thinking about what else I need to try this year. May have to revise my list again. I always tell my son he won’t know if he likes something until he tries it. Maybe I need to take my own advice on this one. But I can’t promise anything.