I was brought up under the ‘if you don’t eat your main you won’t get dessert’ regime. I have to say, it worked quite well for me, because I love a bit of dessert, even if, for the most part growing up it wasn’t very exciting. Stewed fruit, for example, or bread jam and cream. But I got used to eating up my plate, even if I didn’t really like it. And because of this, I think, even to this day, I tend to eat the bad stuff on the plate first. I’ll eat the vegetables I am less keen on, and save the bite of lasagna for the end.
Generally, if I am eating something I am not familiar with, I taste a bit of everything and then almost subconsciously eat the thing I like least first, or at least most of it.
But this is not without its problems.
One evening I had dinner at a friend’s place. We’d cooked together – satay chicken and veggies. It was what we called our ‘special dinner’. I had been responsible for cooking the chicken, which, as it turns out, was not the best idea. Upon sitting down to eat I taste the satay chicken first, and it occurs to me that it tastes a bit odd. The texture is a bit weird. It must be the sauce, I think, so I wolf it down quickly.
Fast forward a few mins later – my friend tries her chicken, bites thoughtfully, screws up her mouth, spits it out and announces, this chicken isn’t cooked. Sure enough, on closer inspection, the chicken was still partially raw in the middle. And I’d already eaten all of mine.
Luckily I didn’t get sick from this incident. And I wish I could say it was an isolated incident. So dry chicken is what you get if I cook for you.
The lesson… if something on your plate tastes weird… maybe just think twice before you shove it down your gob.
an aussie in austria 