I reckon I am now pretty much an omnivore these days. I started my post-home life with a typical diet of beige foods (pasta, rice, processed meats…) and a succession of girlfriends and flatmates introduced The Vegetable into my diet. My distrust of blue cheese was cured by a friend who, every Christmas, would get a barrel of local beer and a whole Stilton set up in his garage. A pint of beer and a slice of stilton on crusty bread and I was fixed.
I did used to think that I was allergic to mushrooms, and as a child would have to leave the room/house if there were mushrooms being cooked. Even a side order of them on someone else’s plate would make me lose my appetite… Over the years, though, I realised that there were stews and burritos and the like that I’d consumed that had had mushrooms in without any ill effects (as I’d not realised until later…) so I moved on to just eating round mushrooms in dishes. And then in a ‘none-more-bike-journo’ style, Keith Bontrager (who is a fantastic cook) ganged up with my then-girlfriend Chris to make me a gourmet mushroom dinner. There was chanterelle risotto (with shiitake mushroom liquor) and mushroomy side dishes – all cooked to perfection. Even Keith reckoned it was a bit too mushroomy, but I was cured…
Now I eat anything, though, like Hannah, I tend to avoid octopus for cleverness reasons, and now lobster, thanks to the ‘Leon the Lobster’ Youtube series… I’m going to stop watching documentaries… 🙂
