When Hate Turns Into Love

I have never really been a picky eater, which is fortunate for me because I go out to eat alot. I love going out to new restaurants and trying dishes I never had before. I will order something off the menu just because I like the title of it, or because a character in a book I read ordered it once even if I am not 100% sure I will like it. This game of culinary roulette is exciting to me, and 99% of the time it's a success and I end up with a new favorite dish.

That remaining 1% can be summed up in one word: Uni.

Here are two more words: NEVER AGAIN.

But my adventures with raw sea urchin aside, I consider myself to have an equal opportunity palate, except for two items: mushrooms and scallops. It's a texture thing and I have never been able to quite get over it. And I am a self-hating mushroom and scallop hater because I don't understand why I have to be so picky about it. Some of the best dishes in the finest restaurants include one or both of these ingredients. Why can't I stop being a baby and just get on the mushroom and/or scallop train?

My chance came this past weekend. On Saturday night our good friends Nicky and PJ took Adam and I to a fabulous wine bar and restaurant in Nashua. Since there was a rather long wait for a table, and since I believe if there is a heaven it is in a wine bar, we settled down at the bar to take advantage of the restaurant's book of a wine list. After enjoying a few glasses (including the best chardonnay I have had in a long time) we were seated and as I leapt into my third glass (a sexy pinot blanc), I perused the menu and my eyes lingered upon the usual suspects: roasted chicken, grilled trout, sun dried tomato ravioli. Just about the only thing on the menu that didn't appeal to me was a jumbo sea scallops and risotto dish. It called out to me "You will hate me! Remember? You hate scallops! They are chewy bits of sea-bile thats only redeeming feature is that sometimes they come wrapped in bacon". But, with pinot coursing through my veins, I declared war on the sea scallop and when the waitress came back I ordered them with gusto and with confidence.

By eating them, and maybe actually enjoying them, I would conquer them.

I have to admit, my confidence waned a bit when the meal was presented to me. These chunky disks of white looked like they would be as chewy and as off-putting as ever. I sipped my wine for courage and dug in. As I cautiously placed the first bite in my mouth and chewed, perparing to grimace. I was instead very pleasantly surprised. The texture was tender and delicate, the taste was subtle...in short it was divine! When I thought back on the few times in the distant past I had tried scallops elsewhere (i.e. my parents house sorry Mom!), it was like they weren't even the same dish.

It's amazing what a few ill prepared versions of something can make you miss out on. I could have been sea-scalloping it up all these years!

In any case. The meal was perfect and I can cross scallops off my ever-shorter Hated Foods List.

Still triumphant in my bravery a few days later, I tried a shitake mushroom with my Seared Ahi Salad at Rock Bottom last night. As I placed I bit into the slimy fungus, I waited for another sense of pleasantly surprised delight.

But alas, no. I grimaced. Gagged slightly, and finished it with a swig of water, pill-style.

But mushroom, you have not beaten me yet. I will someday get over this hate and go frolicking in the land of chanterelles and shitakes. And then my list of Hated Foods will be gloriously reduced to a measly one. Which is fitting because I think we are all aware of the famous saying?

The Uni stands alone?