My parents have always firm believers in stamping out picky eating amongst their children and they took action by getting us to eat new things at an early age. Some of this "trying new things" deal involved the following methods:
Bribery
Often my siblings and I weren't allowed to leave the table until the new food was eaten or we wouldn't get dessert until we ate everything on the plate. Side story: I always hated peas and even now I still have a bit of difficulty eating them I think it's something in their consistency I don't like. Anyway, in order to get rid of the offensive peas I used to try to feed them to our dog which didn't go so well as the dog didn't like them either. I then resorted to scooping a bunch of them into my mouth and swallowing them down with a big gulp of water or milk. It got the job done quickly as long as I didn't get too ambitious and try and fill my mouth with too many peas at once. The habit has stuck with me to this day.
Pretending a new food was a food we already liked
My parents at one point decided they wanted us children have us try something unique and cooked up some mussels. When we first looked at them my siblings and I didn't feel to keen about eating them but that changed when my parents told us they were just fried up mushrooms which happened to be something we all did like and we happily ate the mussels.. Then, when we did eventually find out we'd been slightly tricked, we still felt they were good and we still like eating them today and so I don't think any of us were really that upset with our parental units for stretching the truth a bit.
Simply not telling us what we were eating
My parents typically chose to tell us what we were having for dinner but if we were eating something that my siblings and I were unfamiliar with and we suspiciously asked about it, my parents would resort to resolutely stating "just eat it, it's good"-and most of the time it was. I think abiding by the philosophy of just not asking what I'm eating helps me enjoy it more as I can't have any preconceived notions of what I'm eating should actually taste like. Case in point, I was at a Chinese restaurant with some friends and one of them passed something to me that looked like a fairly think chicken drumstick and told me to try it. I did so and found it tasted sort of like a drumstick just with more bones than meat. My friend watched me and when I'd finished eating she clapped me on the back and said "congratulations, you just ate a chicken's foot!" For a second I was grossed out and then I started to laugh with her.
Sometimes I really do think that in the case of food at least, ignorance can really be bliss since that idea has helped broaden my appetite and I think it's improved my life in the process. Granted I've made a pact with myself that I'd only be adventurous if I knew and trusted the person who cooked the food but for the most part I've managed to thrive on the philosophy of: when in doubt.... still dig in!
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