5 Things Sam definitely didn't eat before me
1. Asian food. I mean, none. No Thai, Chinese, Indian or Japanese. Now though, he's tried all of them, and will even consent to eating Chinese food occasionally. Once he ordered it in when I wasn't home, which was astonishing. He actively enjoys Indian food now, and we go out for that once in a while. He doesn't like Thai overly much, though I can persuade him to eat it about once every six months, and he flat-out doesn't eat Japanese, unless it's Yakitori, and even then, only very seldomly will he eat that. It was such a treat to move to the city and realize that lots of Chinese restaurants do Japanese and vice-versa, because it means I can have my tempura and miso, and he can have sesame chicken. (Which is currently the only Chinese dish he eats. But better just that than nothing.)
2. Seared Tuna. I like seared tuna a LOT. We've been to a few restaurants that have it, and every time we eat it (which is admittedly very rarely) Sam seems to like it more and more. I also made that seared tuna salsa thing for our dinner party, which he liked a lot.
3. Fish Tacos. Sam lived in the land of superb fish tacos for years and never ate one. If I lived in fish taco land, you can bet I'd be eating them every week. In fact, when we're next in CA, we'll probably just alternate Wahoo's with In N' Out. Who needs real food when you've got fast food like that? We also tried to cook fish tacos once, and although they didn't taste very much like real fish tacos, they tasted good, and Sam and I talk about cooking Halibut again. We just haven't done it.
4. Red wine sauce. For steaks. First of all, Sam very rarely ate steak before we started dating. He might say he did, but I don't buy it. He'd never had a really good filet mignon before, that's for damn sure. Now, it's his old stand-by in expensive restaurants; he's probably eaten a filet at every type of upscale restaurant (Chinese, Italian, Mexican) in Chicago. His favorite thing is a red wine reduction sauce, which is so odd, because he doesn't like red wine. In fact, I would say he actively dislikes it. It's very odd. But you can almost guarantee that Sam will choose the steak with the red wine sauce on a menu, if it's there.
5. Veal. Okay, he doesn't really eat veal now. But I can guarantee he'd never eaten veal before he ordered it once at 302 West (sadly defunct now, though Niche aims to inherit its, well, niche). Eating somewhere like 302 is always an adventure with someone like Sam, because he is so picky. Usually, he'll order the one beef dish on the menu. The time he ordered veal (osso buco, essentially), there was no beef on the menu. We were with his parents, and there was a buffalo steak on the menu, and Sam just couldn't do it. His dad did, however, and in retrospect, I bet Sam would have rather have had that (minus the "chili" underneath the buffalo [or was it bison?]). But he soldiered through the veal, which he really didn't love, and he even tasted my veal every time I had it, in Italy. I'm not sure he'd willingly order it again, not with beef on the menu, but it's a testament to how adventurous (for him!) he's become that he ordered it once. In fact, it's a testament to how much he's opened up that he'll even go to a place like Niche, because he's taking a blind leap, essentially, every time we dine there.
Eating with Sam sometimes makes me want to scream (sometimes a girl just wants Greek food, yo), but he's literally come miles from where he used to be. We're slowly finding a loose group of dishes that he can order when we go to any type of restaurant in the city, even if he does grumble about some of the types of food I make him eat. If he hadn't gotten more adventurous, I don't know that we would have made it 5 years. Really.
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