What kind of "foodie" are you?

I admit that I'm in no way an adventurous eater. I won't eat anything looking back at me, or wiggling around. When eating in a restaurant, I order the same items because I know what they will taste like. But that's me. Are you an adventurous eater? What kind of "foodie" are you?
 

I love trying new foods and finding new recipes to cook... so on that level, I'm an adventurous eater. There are lines I won't cross, though... like I'd gag to see a fish complete with head on my plate. I would *not* eat a lobster that I'd seen live in the store and had to choose even though they're sold there. Oh, and I used to see chicken feet in my one local grocery store...not for me!
 
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Food is energy for me. I can be adventurous but when I'm preparing the food at home. In restaurants I'm only moderately adventurous because I once got a case of food poisoning on clams I ate and was truly deathly ill and had to have a doctor. I never want a repeat of that situation. :sick::sick:
 
Quite possible my willingness to at least try not typical menu items began when I was an apprentice butcher at age 17 at an Italian market. A few times whole calves were to be cut & prepped for sale, that included the head. The eye balls were steamed, sliced & made into a small sandwich, tongue seasoned baked & an egg omelet with calf brains.

My wife's uncle owned a seafood restaurant. Got to try sea turtle, whole fish with heads on, octopus & sea urchins. Mother in law made the best chicken feet soup.
 
I would be more adventurous if there were was adventurous food on the menu. When we travel, we look for places serving local food, but what do you get in almost any country - pizza, curry, burger etc. When I do get the chance, I'll try most things as long as they're cooked and not so 'rare' that a good vet could have them back on their feet.
 
Adventurous, long-time high-end gourmet, altho we stop short of ridiculously excessive tasting menu restaurants like Alinea and Benu, as Spouse isn't a big fan of 'frou-frou' food, as he likes to describe it. We do go to more reasonably priced (comparatively speaking) 1- and 2-star Michelin places, such as Aubergine/Carmel and Auberge du Soleil/Rutherford, and the unrated but excellent Michael Warring/Vallejo.

I buy chicken feet for the same reason I buy neck bones - both are essential for good stock making. You can't make great soup without good ingredients, and a great quality broth is not cheap to make, but worth it. There are no shortcuts to the traditional methods for best flavor.

My mother was an excellent cook. She once worked as housekeeper/cook to a family in a wealthy suburb near us, back in the 1980's. They adored her. She worked for them for 18 months before she got restless (she was an incredibly energetic person) and resigned. They said they were so sorry to see her go, she had NEVER repeated a single menu the entire time she worked for them.

Her employers gave her permission to have all of us visit for lunch one day when they were away traveling. She cured an side of entire salmon as gravlax and it was delicious. She had worked for a Scandinavian family during WWII in Minnesota (if you got a job, you were allowed to leave the internment camps) and was the only Japanese American I've encountered who had a taste for pickled herring in sour cream!
 
I'm a lousy cook and don't like to cook. I'll do the same thing all the time. Dump some Braggs aminos on tofu and throw it in the microwave.
 
Given its large mix of immigrants from around the globe, San Jose has considerable ethnic restaurants. Since age 20 after suffering a pseudoaneurysm that effects my GI tract, have had to be very careful what I eat. Especially any food containing monosodium glutamate or in drinks, caffeine. Since such are often in food additives that restaurant chefs cannot be sure about in their menu items, I've avoided most restaurants outside national chains or any oriental restaurants. My sensitive tongue taste buds cannot stand spicy foods so no Desi foods. I do love sweets and all dairy. So generally on a 1 to 10 food adventurous scale, I probably rate a 2.
 
Not an adventurous eater. Food is just fuel to me. I eat healthy, don't care for meats only because I don't like to think of the butchering part, so basically end up eating the same, same same.
 
I like Hot & Nasty, or is it Hot & Spicy?
 


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