Sharing Food With Differences Of Opinion

It's always interesting to see how people cook and eat together. Food is, of course, necessary to life and, I think, better when shared. And what foods we cook and enjoy as well as what conversations we have while cooking and eating all help to make up our food experiences.

I happen to be dating a guy who is very picky about what he eats. I'm picky too, but in a different way. While he prefers not to use any condiments on his foods, I like an array of sauces and seasonings to choose from. And while he sticks with broccoli and corn on the cob (it must be ON the cob) as his vegetables of choice, I like a variety... and the more that can be mixed together the better. My steak must be rare and my scrambled eggs dry, but go ahead and put anything with them from Gorgonzola to salsa. He only recently decided to stop asking the burrito place down the street to hold the salsa from his quesadilla. He likes plain things; I like complicated things, but we both like things that are cooked right, or the way we prefer them (as in onions, mine must usually be caramelized and his only slightly sauteed). We've been dating for more than eight months now, so you would think that I would just give up on trying to see eye to eye on food. But I don't. For one reason and one reason only: I am stubborn. Pig-headed. Undeniably so. But what I mean about seeing eye to eye on things is being able to enjoy the same meal sometimes. I'm not into changing people... but a little eye (or taste bud) opening never hurt anybody.

So coming from these two ends of the food spectrum, we always have interesting cooking/eating experiences, whether it's me whining that I don't want to make another box-mix cake or him looking skeptically at some purple potatoes. I continuously challenge myself to come up with recipes that are basic enough for him to enjoy but adventurous enough for me to want to try and cook. Pulled pork = good idea. Orzo and feta salad I made for a recent party = not such a good idea. He's also become my toughest critic and the person who's opinion I value the highest (outside of my family). That may sound silly considering what I've told you about his likes and dislikes for food, but I figure if I can cook for him and please him, then I can cook for anyone. He's also very good at letting me know if something could have used more of this or that or if something would have been better had we deviated from the recipe, something I have a hard time doing. Maybe I need to budge a little his way as well.

Stay tuned, and I'll fill you in on some of our cooking adventures in posts to come.