I'm quite particular with what I eat. I consider myself a foodie; I'm between competent and talented in the kitchen. There are obviously some blind spots in knowledge, but I've got a good palette. In Summer 2013, I got flown to Toronto from New Brunswick for the Recipe to Riches semi-finals. Only the finalists were televised, but still, sweet potato spring rolls flew me to TO!
I'm not saying I eat poorly. I put in a valiant effort to make good food choices, but I'm not perfect.
Here's a partial list of my food quirks!
I'm wiling to try almost anything, but texture is a turn off for a lot of foods. The worst food textures that come to mind are liver, water chestnuts, cottage cheese, jello, and seafood.
I'm not saying I eat poorly. I put in a valiant effort to make good food choices, but I'm not perfect.
Here's a partial list of my food quirks!
- 95% of the time I prefer hot food to cold food.
- If there's a light version, I get the light version. For example, I torture people who order Pizza Pizza with me by imposing a whole-wheat crusted just cheese pizza on them. I'm calling it harm reduction.
- A lot of foods only under certain conditions:
- I only like tomatoes cooked.
- Chunky salsa is a crime.
- Don't get me started on cilantro.
- I like raisins, but rarely baked in things.
- Scrambled eggs should have some color, cook them longer.
- Stevia in my coffee, exclusively. I buy Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl stevia extract liquid sweetener. I might actually have a compulsion about stevia. I get anxiety when I have coffee, and I don't have stevia on my person. I usually order a mocha in those cases, less often I'll use other sweeteners, or rarely real sugar.
- Recently, I rediscovered that I really love evaporated milk in coffee.
- I buy granola bars based on a balance of cost and fibre.
- I'm soy intolerant, so I have to buy the veggie beef that's made out of wheat and pea protein. (All the gluten!)
- I thought I hated all mushrooms, but I've discovered I like enokis.
- Sweet cereals are desserts or snacks, but not breakfast. Favorites include Lucky Charms, Count Chocula, Fruit Loops, and Honeycombs. I'm more inclined to buy a cereal that compromises between sugar and fibre like apple cinnamon or chocolate Cheerios, granola types of cereal, Mini Wheats, Raisin Bran.
- My smoothies are always vegan. It just feels right that only plants go into it...no real motivation. Smoothie base: grind flax and chia, spoon a table spoon of peanut butter, chop half a banana, sweetened vanilla almond milk (Silk is the best). Whatever frozen fruit combination usually ends up delicious.