Adventures in Eating

Recently I discovered this blog, which is all about this girl doing tons of things that she wouldn't normally do and living a much happier life because of it. You should go check it out. It's fantastic and inspiring. So far I haven't done anything terribly fascinating, but I do have plans to ask out a random cute guy on the street once I'm back to being able to walk, just because it's completely not the kind of thing I would normally do.  So here's my story of doing something that I normally wouldn't.  Though it's pretty tame compared to some of the things that girl does, it's a start.  I'm the kind of girl who pretty much just eats things that I am used to, or at the very least, things that I can pronounce.  One time, in the cafeteria on the first floor of my dorm, they were serving gyros, which I had never had before but looked pretty tasty so I decided to try one.  Let me add that gyros were the only things they were serving.  I asked for a gyro, and pronounced it like it looks, like gyroscope but without the scope part.  The lady totally acted that she had no idea what a was asking for and I had to repeat it four more times before resorting to pointing at it.  And seriously, how could she not know what I was asking for when that was the only thing they were serving!?  After I pointed, she said, "Oh, you mean a yee-ro."  Is that really how it's pronounced?  Anyway, thanks for trying to make me feel like an incompetent moron server lady, when I was just pronouncing it like it's spelled.

So after that episode, I have pretty much steered clear of things that I cannot pronounce, until last night.  I had dinner pretty late and by that point the only thing left open in the cafeteria is a pizza place that has really greasy pizza.  Luckily for me, there is also a handy dandy little convenience store.  Instead of going for the safe option of mac and cheese or Hot Pockets, I went back to the sushi case.  Most of it had fish eggs on it, and since I don't like them cooked, I figured that I probably wouldn't like them any better raw.  So I got pork shumai, which I'm guessing is pronounced shoe my? Anyway, it seemed like a quite adventurous food, especially since it was in the sushi case.  Did it contain raw pork? Would my adventures in eating become adventures in food poisoning?  I would just have to wait and see.  I also got some shrimp dumplings, because they are safe, delicious, and pronouncable, just in case the pork shumai turned out to be unpalatable.  Then I got a bag of Swedish Fish, which I have never had.  I had looked on the internet earlier to see what they taste like and all I could find was that they taste sort of like winegums, which are a British thing I believe, and you either love them or you hate them.  So they seemed like a good adventure dessert.  I got back up to my room with my adventure foods and ate some of the dumplings first while I worked up my courage.  Then I ate one of the pork shumai (there were six).  Not completely horrible, but not great either.  So I heated the remaining five in the microwave and tried again.  Still not great.  So then I tried dunking them in the ginger soy sauce that came with my dumplings and that made them just palatable enough to choke down.  So the pork shumai turned out to be a failure.  I really couldn't even tell what was in it or if the pork was raw or cooked, but since I didn't end up with food poisoning, I'll assume it was cooked.  Then I ate the remaining dumplings and got ready for the Swedish Fish.  The first thing I noticed about them was that if you bend them, they will unbend themselves and it's like they're swimming in slow motion.  Okay, enough dilly-dallying, moment of truth time.  I ate one and it was really good, pretty much tasted like a cherry fruit snack only with a little bit of a chewier texture.  So Swedish Fish, I am a fan, would definitely buy them again.  And as a result, I will be willing to try new, even unpronounceable foods again, as long as I have something that I know I like as a backup.  Also, Swedish Fish are seriously delicious.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I'm going home for Spring Break tomorrow, so I'll be neglecting my blog while I'm away.  Try not to miss me too much, and definitely check out the blogs I follow if you need to fill the gap.