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I wish to present to you fine folks an idea that Pretty Pillion and I do and have done for years now. We live in the heavily populated Northern Virginia area chocked full of restaurants from all world/ethnic backgrounds.
We are from two different worlds ourselves. She grew up on Luzon Island in the province of Pampanga. Evidently, some consider the food here to be the best in all of the Philippines. I grew up in cattle country Texas. Where much food worth eating can be cooked on a campfire or under one or grilled.
The US Navy took me to over 60 countries where I ranked them on their food. Singapore is number followed by S/E Turkey as number two. I love food!
She gets paid on one Friday and I get paid on the next. The idea of a Friday date night turned into Fridates. Whomever gets paid that week, chooses the restaurant we eat at. For two straight years, we never ate at the same place twice on a Fridate. Once we started running out of nearby places, we changed the rule to say that if we ate at a repeat place, we had to choose something different from the menu. At times, we would plan an hour-long ride to find a new place for supper.
Doing this has opened our eyes to many great dishes from all over the world. And a few choices we will never enjoy again...
Stepping outside of one's comfort zone is important I think to better understanding of the world out there. One great experience we both enjoyed was eating at an Ethiopean restaurant. She ordered beef and I had goat. We had several side dishes we had never heard of. The meal came out on a single, very large diameter metal platter roughly 36" across. The bottom was a single piece of bread. It had many holes in it and used as the tool to eat with; no silverware at all. Just rip some bread and pinch the portion of food you wanted and eat it.
I could not stop eating long after my stomach was full. Pretty Pillion seemed to love it too, especially eating with her hands; something she grew up doing.
A not-so-good meal was the following Fridate at a restaurant from Ghana. We chose basically the same dish but this time the seasoning was harsh and somewhat bitter for both of us. We didn't finish and instead went across the road to a Checkers Burger joint to fulfill our dietary requirements.
So, let us hear of your food experiences outside of your normal haunts and whether or not they turned out good. And consider doing something like Fridates with your own significant other.
We are from two different worlds ourselves. She grew up on Luzon Island in the province of Pampanga. Evidently, some consider the food here to be the best in all of the Philippines. I grew up in cattle country Texas. Where much food worth eating can be cooked on a campfire or under one or grilled.
The US Navy took me to over 60 countries where I ranked them on their food. Singapore is number followed by S/E Turkey as number two. I love food!
She gets paid on one Friday and I get paid on the next. The idea of a Friday date night turned into Fridates. Whomever gets paid that week, chooses the restaurant we eat at. For two straight years, we never ate at the same place twice on a Fridate. Once we started running out of nearby places, we changed the rule to say that if we ate at a repeat place, we had to choose something different from the menu. At times, we would plan an hour-long ride to find a new place for supper.
Doing this has opened our eyes to many great dishes from all over the world. And a few choices we will never enjoy again...
Stepping outside of one's comfort zone is important I think to better understanding of the world out there. One great experience we both enjoyed was eating at an Ethiopean restaurant. She ordered beef and I had goat. We had several side dishes we had never heard of. The meal came out on a single, very large diameter metal platter roughly 36" across. The bottom was a single piece of bread. It had many holes in it and used as the tool to eat with; no silverware at all. Just rip some bread and pinch the portion of food you wanted and eat it.
I could not stop eating long after my stomach was full. Pretty Pillion seemed to love it too, especially eating with her hands; something she grew up doing.
A not-so-good meal was the following Fridate at a restaurant from Ghana. We chose basically the same dish but this time the seasoning was harsh and somewhat bitter for both of us. We didn't finish and instead went across the road to a Checkers Burger joint to fulfill our dietary requirements.
So, let us hear of your food experiences outside of your normal haunts and whether or not they turned out good. And consider doing something like Fridates with your own significant other.
