“Weird” Food Made Me Open-Minded, Despite My Initial Embarrassment
Ma made me scrambled eggs, peanut butter, and American cheese sandwiches to take to school.
I read Devin R. Moncada’s essay, In Praise of the Delights of Weird Food, and immediately thought of my childhood meals. Devin speaks of making and eating a peanut butter and pickle sandwich out of desperation, as that was all that was left in his pantry.
But what it did do was allow me to realize that the idea of a lot of what we think of as weird or gross foods wasn’t from our own experiences of eating and trying them, but from our own received perceptions of them. Because I automatically associated peanut butter with jelly and sweets, I thought it was weird to have it in savory applications. Another piece to the equation is that so often what we think of as “weird” is really just unfamiliar.
There are certain widely accepted foods that everyone (in your culture) finds acceptable. I think it's fun to explore the margins of your own “food culture” and learn what other cultures deem tasty. Of course, I didn’t always think this way.
When I was younger, I wanted nothing more than to fit in with all my other classmates. I never wanted to be known as the “weird” kid, even though my parents were immigrants and…
