Ever since I could remember, I have been a chronic picky eater. The textures and smells of food have always put me off and stemmed a fear of trying new foods. I am always a person that looks up the menu before going to a new restaurant. I always try to avoid being a picky eater and making issues for other people. Knowing I was going on this trip with almost all strangers, I made a challenge for myself to attempt to try something new everyday. Whether it was a drink, dipping sauce, a meal or dessert, I just wanted to have something new. I tried the most new foods in York. I tried lots of new teas and desserts at Bettys. I attempted the cucumber sandwich but was quickly turned off from it. But I still attempted it! The green tea at Bettys was one of the best green teas I’ve ever had. Later in York many of us went out to dinner. It was mainly a burger place, and burgers are not my favorite thing. I have maybe had 5 burgers in my life… until England. This restaurant had the best burger. I kept it simple with just a double patty and cheese, but it did the job. Since England all I do is crave burgers. I told a few people about how I was a picky eater, but Jaclyn and Rosemary were definitely my biggest supporters. When I went to McDonald’s with Rosemary and Thomas, the three of us were shocked over how different the menus were. There were lots of different foods, desserts and dipping sauces. We each got different things and split them to try almost the whole menu. If someone told me I would’ve had mozzarella sticks at McDonalds, I would’ve laughed in your face. But there we were, sitting in a McDonalds in England sharing delicious mozzarella sticks. Even though I tried to commit to trying new foods, I knew I could always count on pizza. It started as a joke, but two cities into this trip I realized I had tried pizza in both cities. So, I continued that with the rest of the trip. I split pizza with friends, had whole pizzas to myself and do not regret a single piece that I ate. I started in Manchester when Jaclyn, Logan and I slept through dinner. The three of us tried a pizza place and it was arguably one of the best pizzas of my life. The three of us were speechless. We ordered two pies of pizza and only one came out. At first we thought they forgot about the other one so we just moved on from it and talked about how delicious our garlic bread and pizza was, but our waiter came over with the best news. They were giving us our second pizza for free due to the fact that we waited so long. When we came back to the hotel I made Rosemary have a slice of the pizza. We ended up eating a lot more than one slice each because we were both in shock over how good pizza in England could be. Since this trip and trying foods for 10 days in a row, I have not stopped. I am slowly getting over my fear of smells and textures, and I will always have England to thank for that.
There and Back Again