On the subject of trying new things

I had lunch with someone recently who I had not previously had lunch with. A coworker and I took up this acquaintance's offer to visit a local lunch spot with him. Though I don't know him well, I pegged him, quite correctly, for a non-adventurous, meat and potatoes kind of guy. This was based primarily on his out-of-this-world Yinzer accent, his total disregard for all forms of social media, his stone washed jeans and his penchant for Billy Joel music. So, for my own amusement as well as his own good (not to mention my belly's enjoyment) I suggested we eat Thai food. Though there was some level of protest at my suggestion that he interpreted to be that we should "go eat sticks or whatever they have there."

I enjoy taking people to new places, and I especially enjoy introducing someone to a whole new type of food. Imagine giving someone their first slice of pizza!! At some point in this life, I might leave the country and go to the most remote place you can imagine, find some people and bring them to Pittsburgh just so they can have Mineo's as their first pizza experience ever - and I get to watch! Usually new food experiences are pretty fantastic, but occasionally things go a bit awry. Like the time I made tofu for my husband.

We hit up the Cadillac version of local Thai establishments - Nicky's on Western Avenue on the North Shore. My meal was excellent, as always. Spicy garlic chicken with brown rice. Nom, nom, nom. During this excursion, which was, overall, a really fun outing, I learned a few things:

-Meat and potato eaters might not like spicy food. (I erred in believing that Buffalo wings are a staple of the standard bar-frequenting, Budweiser drinking, sweatshirt wearing American's diet and assumed that spicy = good.) In this case, a 3 on the standard 1-10 stars scale that is common in Thai establishments, was unacceptably hot. There was sweat. There were tears. There was mouth fanning.

-When someone isn't familiar with a particular ethnic food, they may assume anything the slightest bit out of the ordinary is a "custom" of this ethnicity. Example: "Don't Thai people like ice in their water?"

-Don't suggest the spring rolls. Way too many unusual textures for the unaccustomed palate. I mean, you've got those slimy, cold, gray, translucent wrapper things (I know, I am making them sound really awesome) tofu, shrimp, noodles and lettuce all wrapped together, that you clumsily dip in a brown sauce that has little chunkers floating in it - for some of us, it's an adorable mini snack representing most of the food groups. But I can see how it could be a bit terrifying.

-You can't go wrong with anything that resembles chicken noodle soup. See, chicken noodle soup is the Frank Sinatra of food. You don't come across too many people who are, like, obsessed with it, but you also don't run into too many haters. Chicken soup spans the generations. It heals the sick. And when those Thai people put some cilantro in there - boy, are you in for a treat. Unless you hate cilantro. In which case, you are a bad person and we're done here.

In the end, we had a nice meal, despite a few gruff, Pittsburghese-laden squawks inquiring about the nature of what we were about to eat, what we were currently eating and what we had eaten. Final words from our reluctant guest? "It was alright. But next time we're gettin' pizza."