Fussy about Food...

Well....its not the first time that I've been labelled as that. The first time it happened was when I was visiting this great friend in San Diego earlier this year (2006) and I was being picky about the food I ate. That trip, I was cribbing about everything, about how bored I was, about how I didnt want to eat in an Indian restaurant, about how I didnt want to go to the beach and so on and so forth...

The trip was the lousiest that I've ever had. My friend - she was absolutely pissed at me because I had become this cranky baby - cribbing about everything, but she was amazingly resilent and put up with all my fussiness (if there is such a word). And thanks to her for that :-).

Anyways, coming back to the point, she told me I was fussy about food. She remarked that I would be unable to adjust to a new food taste - some taste that I am not accustomed to! Yes that is very very true. I'm a vegetarian and although I love eating, it has to taste right for me. Only if it tastes right, will I be able call it delicious. If I force myself to eat what does not taste right, I end up puking!!

Yes its true, has happened with me many-a-times. And the first sign I get that I might puke, I stop. I consider it as a warning sign. I stop eating that thing immediately and whatever's left of it goes waste.

The earliest incident that I can remember about it is in school (about 3rd or 4th standard) I used to share my "dabba" with my friends and there was this girl who once got Marie biscuits. So as usual, we gathered together during recess and started eating our "dabbas". She took some stuff from my "dabba" and I took some of her Marie biscuits. I started eating them and I still remember, they tasted a bit oily. (In fact I can still recollect that taste)

Although they tasted wierd, I saw others eating the biscuits very calmly and scrumptuously. Seeing that, I forced myself to eat them. I stuffed one in my mouth and before I could chew, stuffed another one in my mouth. Thats was it!! The first bit that I swallowed, just came-out and I spat everything in my mouth in my hand. (Yes you read it right...in my hand...I didnt dirty the floor)

I just ran off to the toilet, cleaned my hands and my mouth and went back to my class and didnt eat anything else until I got home.

Maybe, its a bit psychological, in the sense that - each time I eat something that does not taste right, I am reminded of that oily taste and hence, after a few bites, I am unable to relish it further. Since that day, I've always refrained from eating other classmates' "dabbas". A habit which I carried upto engineering.

During engineering, I used to share my "dabba" with all my friends and a group of 12-dabbas used to get eaten up in about 4-5 minutes by a group of 12 voracious eaters, something that can be likened to a pack of hyenas feasting on a kill. That was the time, when I slowly started eating other's "dabbas" again, that too because, just eating mine, I used to get very little to eat and hunger started getting the better of me!! :-))

Even today, I'm a bit skeptical about eating stuff made/cooked by other people (quite evident by the fact that I didnt eat the Dal prepared by my roomie - someone who rarely cooks - here in the US, just because I wasnt sure if it would taste right).

A perfect example of the saying - OLD HABITS DIE HARD!!!