Thursday, April 17, 2008

Prepare to be amazed ...

People who know me know that I'm a picky eater. And I don't like veggies much at all, which is why Item #1 is such a challenge for me. I admit it. I'm prejudiced against vegetables. If I know ahead of time what I'm eating, my mind's already made up that I won't like it. So, today, I drove in to the Borrowed Earth Cafe, which serves only raw food & met up with a friend, and I pushed my limits.

I had their "Far Easter", described as an oriental feast of fresh julienned vegetables (dear lord ... not even identified!!) blended with an out-of-this-world teriyaki sauce (I like teriyaki) rolled in a collard green leaf (yuck!!) with jicama "rice" (that stuff's okay). And it came with two (horribly unidentified side salads). The challenge? Eat it & don't look too closely. Just pay attention to whether or not I like it. My friend Carrie was awesome at encouraging me to consider my palate, not my prejudices. For dessert, I had "baklava", with pastry made out of dried (I think) fruits & filled with various nuts. When all was said and done, this is what I wound up consuming, between the entree, 2 side salads, and dessert:

Things I already knew I liked: red bell peppers, carrots, pineapple, raisins, radishes, snow peas, cilantro, walnuts, pine nuts.

Things I was surprised, VERY surprised, to find out are actually okay: (1) broccoli, both stem & florets, chopped fine, mixed in with other crisp veggies was tolerable. If they're raw in future salads, I probably won't pick them out. (2) napa cabbage, which was substituted for the collard green leaf. I found it to be bitter, but tolerable. (3) Fennel bulb & fronds. I've always found fennel to be overwhelming, but this time it was tolerable. (4) Pistachio nuts, snuck into the baklava, were ... like everything else I listed .... tolerable, when mixed with other things. I wouldn't have known they were in there if I hadn't seen them.

Things I found out were just as nasty as I remembered them to be: tomatoes. Just can NOT tolerate them. Disgusting. I drank a whole glass of water after eating a very large grape tomato. *shudder*

So, 5 points to me for things I reevaluated for Item #41, for a total of 6. 4 more to go. I can do this.

5 comments:

Haeleth said...

I am completely stunned and amazed!! Way to go honey! Way to stretch yourself on this!

It totally gives me tons of motivation for my exercising!

Way to go again!

kaj said...

Excellent! That place sounds wonderful! And I would have eaten everything except the red pepper.

Anonymous said...

wow! good job. :] that's quite the stretch. i feel for you. i am SUCH a picky eater.

kimz said...

You rock!! I'm right with ya on the tomato... I have to hand it to ya... it's prolly been a good 17 years since I've tried to put a tomato in my mouth. Someone said that when you grow your own tomatoes it tastes much different... well that was a complete lie! GAG!!

kimz said...

You rock!! I'm right with ya on the tomato... I have to hand it to ya... it's prolly been a good 17 years since I've tried to put a tomato in my mouth. Someone said that when you grow your own tomatoes it tastes much different... well that was a complete lie! GAG!!