Food for thought

As I consider potentially shifting topics for this blog, I'd like to talk about (you guessed it) food.

My boyfriend and I ate at Pei Wei tonight.

That's not terribly exciting, nor is it uncommon. We eat there a couple of times a year. It's college food.

I tried the honey seared dish with vegetables and tofu.

"Gee," I thought to myself as I scanned the menu for interesting vegetarian food. "I haven't had that one there in a while."

I've eaten the blazing noodles every time we went to Pei Wei for the last year. I've never tried any of the other vegetarian dishes. Why? Because I ate the honey seared every time we went before that, since I moved into my dorm in August 2004 and my uncle took me to lunch at Pei Wei for the first time ever.

It hit me after I'd finished what I decided was an overly sweet and filling meal.

I've only tried something new there once.

And I do this everywhere. I find something I like and stick with it. I decide to try something new, and if I like it, I stick with it; if I don't like it, I go back to what I was eating before. Eventually, I switch back to the original favorite, and on it goes. Example: ate ONLY fettuccine alfredo at Olive Garden for 16 years. Started eating only the cannelloni. Became a vegetarian a year later, now only eat the fettuccine again.

It's not because I fear trying new things. In fact, I love trying new foods--provided they taste good and are actually vegetarian, of course (you can't fool me by saying it's vegetarian and smirking as you secretly drench the meal in chicken stock before cooking it--I'll vomit for two days, and I'll know why).

I know I'm not the only person who does this. Many of my high school and undergrad girlfriends did the same thing.

What is this strange comfort zone we fall into, and how do we get there? How do we let ourselves become content with the mundane?

From now on, I'm going to force myself to try new things at restaurants I frequent. You should do the same--I dare you.