17 Comments
May 12, 2023Liked by Diana Spechler

I’m not going to say the word ‘curdled’. I like you and don’t want you to die.

I love what you did with this and do agree (also being a picky eater) that no one gets the last word on what makes any experience.

For me, it’s almost never the food.

I once ordered a chicken dish at a restaurant in Kathmandu so spicy that everyone told me not to order that dish. I did. I even encouraged the waitperson to ‘bring on the heat’. When the food came, it was accompanied by the entire kitchen staff who surrounded me to watch me eat it. I can’t imagine what they thought would happen, but it was delicious. Still, not as delicious as having dinner with the entire kitchen staff.

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Feb 5, 2023Liked by Diana Spechler

This reminded me that years ago I used to teach high school classes to adults who never graduated. This lovely older man invited me to his house for dinner one night. I didn’t mention I was vegetarian because I figured there’d probably be other things to eat and I didn’t want to make him and his wife nervous. The meal turned out to be one thing only: steak. A slab of steak the size of the entire dinner plate. Nothing else. Not even a baked potato. It was just like your story. I spent a long time cutting it up and moving it around. Fortunately, they had a little dog who kept visiting me from beneath the table. I managed to feed the whole steak to the dog without the couple ever knowing.

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Ewww… pineapple! Probably because my dad hated it. Do we we adopt our parents’ dislikes? Someone came to cook in my kitchen and scoffed at my jar of garlic and I didn’t have fresh cloves of garlic.

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Another great one, Diana! As you may recall, I am revolted by mayo (I don't even want to type the full word because it makes me cringe, and I know I'm dramatic about it). My grandmother mistook it for a glob of suntan lotion and rubbed it into my arm. Then, I baked in the sun and my arm smelled like garbage for what felt like years. I am a super detector and I resent people who try to slip it by me (for example, by calling aioli). I've always been picky and you're absolutely right; it's great to be an adult and eat/not eat whatever I please.

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Jan 23, 2023Liked by Diana Spechler

One of my greatest fears is unknowingly consuming raw garlic.

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Jan 21, 2023Liked by Diana Spechler

I hate fish and live in LA, land of sushi. I've had a few times where I got to a dinner and fish was the only thing on the menu (one time when I lived in NYC/knew you and one time at my MOM's, who refuses to remember that I hate fish and I kid you not, served SHARK that night).

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Jan 20, 2023Liked by Diana Spechler

I love you. This one made me laugh so many times.

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Jan 20, 2023Liked by Diana Spechler

I dabbled in vegetarianism for a few years. Didn’t care for it much.

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