If you know me at all you know I am a picky eater and if you don’t know me think of a toddler who says no to everything their parents offer until they get dessert. However, since moving to Milan, I have slowly started to change my ways.
Everything that makes food great I have probably used as a reason not to like certain foods. Texture, smell, look or color are just a few of my excuses from the past. Trust me it didn’t take much for me to find a reason to not like something even before actually trying the food. I know what you are thinking, Mackenzie how did you possibly live? Like I said earlier much like a child, thank goodness for chicken fingers, pepperoni pizza and mashed potatoes. So how did I do it? How could I possibly change my ways? Well living with an Italian family for 6 months sure did help.
In January 2016 I came to Milan to be an au pair. I lived and worked with an amazing family who I very often ate with however since they took me in and made me feel a part of their family I never mentioned how picky I am when it comes to food. I am so glad I never mentioned it because it made me eat everything they offered and let me tell you they offered me everything and anything they could. With this experience and my taste for new food evolving I started ordering new foods at restaurants and found out I actually like a lot of food! I even stopped picky at my food before eating it…I can hear the gasps. Fast forward to know, May 2017 and I don’t even know who I am anymore.
With this new freedom and sense of adventure with food I feel invincible as silly as that sounds, its true. I never realized how much I was missing until recently. Now I eat sushi, every day if I could but before I gagged at the thought of it and raw fish made me nervous. I eat avocadoes when before I laughed at everyone’s obsession with the silly fruit I mean its green for goodness sake! And just the other day I ate mushrooms and did not die, not even a little. I know there’s still more out there for me to try and still a long way to go before I truly appreciate food.
Although Milan has helped me grow and experience new things in the food world I still don’t cook. That is still taking some time but stay tuned anything can happen when you are outside of your comfort zone!