Food (and life) the way we think it should be

Today I’m trying out something new, two things really. In the blogging world, there are themes that are based on the day of the week and each genre of blog has its own little system, it seems. Two popular ones for Friday are Foodie Friday (where you talk about food, usually a recipe) and Five-Minute Friday (where you write for five minutes straight without editing, backspacing or whatever). This is my attempt to do both (crazy to multitask, I know).

The way we think things should be

When a couple starts dating, a “safe” topic to discuss is what foods each other likes. This makes sense, right? It’s an easy common ground to find and it can lead to more date locations if the couple finds they both have a love for say, sub sandwiches.

Through our initial conversations about food and even since then, both John and I have been surprised at each other at what food we like, how we like it prepared and what we think is the “real thing.” Not to sound all therapeutic or anything, but it always seemed to stem back from when we were kids.

I think the biggest so-called shock to me was that John is not a big fan of Italian food. He especially doesn’t like Olive Garden. I’m used to that attitude from people who think Olive Garden is a cheap substitute for the authentic cuisine, but John tends to like sauces like Prego or Ragu more than other places. At first I really couldn’t understand this at all. But once he explained it, I realized that a lot in life is like that.

John told me that he thinks his perception of what Italian food should taste like is based on when he first had Italian food and that anything different from that doesn’t taste right.

I can see that being true for me, especially with, say, Chinese food. I’m pretty sure that the stuff on the buffet is not what I would get in China yet my first experience with sweet and sour chicken pretty much made me determine what I think is a “proper” version of the dish. I think it’s the same thing with mixed drinks, as well. If you are introduced to, say, a Vegas Bomb that has a splash of cranberry juice in it and you like it, it doesn’t matter if that’s the only bartender on the planet who makes his Vegas Bombs that way. Any other form of the drink just isn’t “right.”

So how is this true in life? Are there aspects of life beyond food and drink that we have a preconceived notion of how it should be, simply because that is how it was introduced?