The first time that I ever had mashed potato as part of a meal, was in Australia, when I was 25 years old. It was served with grilled meat and some green peas as vegetable for dinner. It looked new in my eyes!
Boiled green peas as vegetable? I’ve always been used to either sauteed vegetable or cooked in coconut milk and not just some pieces of boiled green peas.
The meat looked delicious as well until I tasted it. It was too plain. It wasn’t the kind of meat marinated in soy sauce with lemon juice, garlic and black pepper that I’ve always been used to.
Mashed potato was too heavy for me. It was like a paste. Potato had always been just one of the ingredients of either meat or vegetable dish. Menudo is an example of my favorite meat recipe with potato.
Anyway, if only I wasn’t eating in front of two English-Australians, I might have already thrown up after the first mouthful. But I had to eat it just for the sake of being nice. And because they didn’t know that I didn’t like it, we had mashed potato served almost every night.
I’ve realized something about this experience. A person will never get used to anything, if they don’t try and if they are not open to adapt.
A country will not adjust for you, it is you who will have to adjust to fit in.
I never thought I would learn to love mashed potato. I just found myself craving for it after having rice again, straight for a week. And that’s it.
Who would expect I would learn to love it? 😉
July 11, 2013
Chx
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