Before and now after my holiday I've felt like I needed one. You all know the feeling. Especially with the pressures and annoyances of living in this island we call Great Britain. The ultimate marmite nation. The drama of day to day life at uni in particular however, was a bit too much for me and my everyone needs to get along world view. Rudeness gets to me on a level that it really shouldn't. I won't go into things because that's what my blog is about. I just feel as though the last few blogs may have been affected in some way because of this. And for that I apologise.
Therefore, as of now, normal service is resumed.
So my Good Food magazine came this morning and my god, the taste sensations it teased me with. Over the past few months I've come to consider myself a huge foodie. Oh that's actually a word! I was expecting the red zigzag of doom. Or the green zigzag of doom even. What even is that? So I've made a mistake which is not quite as bad as my gross spelling error but the internet and word processing and general computerised spellchecking deems it necessary to bring to my attention. At least it's better than the paperclip. Although not quite as bad as the macbook beach-ball of doom.
Anyway being a foodie has, in many ways added a whole new level of happy experiences to my life. As a child I felt I was a fussy eater, I didn't like beans, or marzipan, or even pasta at a point! When you're from the family of pasta lovers that I am though I can sympathise with my younger self. I find it strange that as a child we tend to conflict the general thinking of adults around you until you start seeing their way. It's why everyone will probably end up voting conservative.
Foodie! Concentrate David. Since I came to uni, I pretty much subconsciously came to the decision that disliking such foods was a silly idea. Some stuck, it took me a long while to start liking baked beans for instance. I just always found the texture a bit strange, or squiffy, my word of the moment. But ever since I got that tasty full english breakfast at standsted and bravely decided to have it as it comes, beans and all, I haven't gone back. That first dip of toast into the beany goodness showed me what I've been missing out on! Next stop, boiled eggs, because then I can have soldiers and they're cool.
Being a foodie is a lot of fun I've found. Not being scared of new tastes is a new thing that I can try on a daily basis and it means that when I go to a new restaurant for instance, one of David's favourite past-times, I can try something new and exciting. Previous to this, in restaurants I'd always go for the steak or grill. Which is always tasty but a bit boring.
On another note, when I think the word 'grill' I'm always reminded of the Homer Simpson quote 'le grille? What the hell is that?!' Naturally the big bald buffoon is holding up a grill as he attempted to put together a barbecue using the french instructions. Classic 90s comedy.
But as I was saying, this means that recently, when I've been sat in a new restaurant I've been adventurous enough to try new foods. I'd always steered clear of ravioli for instance, because the David of old would have been scared of what was inside. However when I took the plunge on my recent trip to Rome I found out ricotta cheese is amazing and now among my favourite cheeses.
This meant therefore that when I was at Jamie Oliver's restaurant in Reading the other week for my brother's birthday (we're very posh my family) I was not in the least bit put off by Jamie's Ricotta cheesecake. Neither was I perturbed by the spaghetti fritters (deep fried spaghetti!) or the Italian nachos (deep fried ravioli) Therefore, once I'd been to Jamie's Italian and discovered that Mr Oliver really likes deep frying things, I also discovered that I had a whole host of new foods to add to my favourites list.
Also in Spain recently, I found a taste for green olives and I once again confirmed my love of swordfish. I found it delightfully meaty but soft and fishy at the same time. I can thank my university refectory for that. Which is surprising because that place was usually dire straits for foodies.
This means that I now stop to read menus wherever I can in restaurants when walking around. I can only dream of the monetary requirements necessary to stop and eat at them all. Therefore a nice moral to the end of this particular blog. Never be afraid of new foods. Precious few actually make you vomit on the spot. You need to go to I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here for those kind of delicacies, and I don't care how many stars it'll get me, putting a Kangaroo testicle in my mouth isn't what I want to be doing with my Saturday afternoons. Most foods however, surprisingly, are actually quite tasty. Especially in restaurants when you can more often than not trust the restauranteur in question that the tastes they've cobbled together on their menus do actually work! Trust me, be adventurous with food, you'll love it.
Although don't do what Johnny English does at the sushi bar and try something strange to impress a girl, you'll get your tie stuck in the conveyor belt and yes that's hilarious, but the girl gets away!
For me the next stop is shellfish. That mountain of strange yet obviously tasty food I have get to conquer! Wish me luck New Things fans!
P.S. If you've got a strange yet wonderfully tasty food you can recommend please leave a comment!
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