Odd Days: Eating fried bees does not make you an adventurous eater

I admit to looking down my nose at individuals I deem to be *un*adventurous eaters. Perhaps I subconsciously associate adventurous eating with a love of adventure in general, even though I probably have more counter examples than examples.

My father would be my prime counter example. He started the science fair in Archbold Ohio and, at his insistance, one of the booths was an exotic foods booth. Each year brave eaters would wander up to the booth to see the current offering -- a new dead bug on a cracker. If the person ate it, the reward was a button or ribbon or something that said he or she had eaten a bee, or a cricket or a cockroach or whatever. If the booth lacked customers, Dad would grab one of his kids (both toddlers) and have the kid demonstrate what adventurous eating looked like. I, myself, have eaten my share of bugs at the Archbold Science Fair.

The important fact to note here, is that as far as I know, my father never ate any of those bugs. Not surprising because I also recall that if my mother placed a dinner on the table that was anything but meat, potatoes and ice cream, my father would turn different shades of green.

Flash forward to today and my own nuclear family. Durf is the most adventurous eater I've ever known. If there's something on a menu he doesn't recognize he'll order it and eat it. Or if there is something horrifyingly familiar but not previously known to be edible, that's even better (snake, kangaroo, bull balls, you name it).

I on the other hand am not an adventurous eater, in spite of my science fair prowess (of which I was quite proud, I must say). Oh I'll try the occasional new thing, but only because I don't want to look like one of those people who won't try new things. But if nobody is looking, I'll continue to eat all of my favorite foods and that's it.

All this by way of saying I tasted mussels for the first time in my life when I was in NY. And damn if I didn't order them again last night, right here in Colorado. Does that make me an adventurer?

Colorado score: +1 (not that mussels are better in CO. the +1 is for trying.)