Foodphobic

Some that know me would describe me as a picky eater. I do realize that many of my long list of "dislikes" were decided when I was 5, and so I've been trying new foods lately, mostly thanks to the taunting of my husband. (He says I eat oranges like a 7 year old-- how does he even know what that looks like?)

Anyway, I'm attempting to branch out, but along the way have come to realize that your average Brit is even finickier than I am. There are a multitude of reality TV shows revolving around how ridiculous many Brits' tastes are, i.e. ONLY eats chips, ONLY eats fried meat, ONLY eats sliced bread. Its amazing a human being can subsist on such a diet! (For a good time visit www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and watch "Freaky Eaters") Although this is an extreme example, I was faced with an interesting conundrum this week at work.

One of my coworkers is leaving and so as a farewell we planned for dinner out at Wagamama, a Japanese-ish noodle bar chain. Pretty inoffensive, really, noodles, meat, and veg. But over half our coworkers didn't go because they only eat "traditional British food" aka fried and/or covered in gravy. One of my coworkers explained "I've got international tastes. You can put me almost anywhere in the world and I'll find something good to eat, because most countries have McDonalds."

My final case-in-point is the above picture, a chip butty (for Americans that means a sandwich topped only with french fries) It is something you can really buy in England. Seriously!