Bad Palates Overcome

[adrober]

Dear Mr. Steingarten,

First of all, thank you so much for answering our questions. I am the proud owner of a newly purchased "Man Who Ate Everything" and my two-part question concerns the Introduction. I am increasingly amazed by the idea--presented in your "Step Two" of overcoming phobias--that taste is the product of environment, not genetics. This leads to two very important, very personal problems.

1) My taste in bagels has been ravaged by Dunkin' Donuts. I am a bagel person and I come from a bagel family. Growing up in New York, we would eat wonderful bagels every Sunday and over the course of my life--post Bar Mitzvah bagel brunches, platters sent after funerals--I have eaten some pretty terrific bagels. Then I moved to Atlanta. While Atlanta produces many good things--peaches, fried chicken, Jimmy Carter--it most certainly does not produce great, or even edible bagels. That's why I started. I was confused back then, I didn't know any better. I went to Dunkin' Donuts and ordered a sesame bagel with cream cheese. The first bite was beyond awful: green fumes shooting out from each laminated crevice. I swore I would never go back. But then I did. Again. And again.

Which is all a very long way of saying that I'm addicted. Instead of overcoming a food phobia, I need to overcome a food philia. (Is philia a word?) I now crave Dunkin' Donuts bagels. I know that they are awful, disgusting plastic replicas of the real thing, but I want them. I need them. And there's no alternative. Whatever shall I do?

2) My friend Lisa is a lovely person with one major flaw: she hates olives. "Lisa," I say, "Jeffrey Steingarten says that taste isn't genetic and that you can overcome your distaste for olives." "But Adam," she replies, "why would I do that? I don't like them, why should I make myself like them?" "Because," I scream, "it opens up a whole new world of culinary opportunity." She shakes her head and rolls her eyes and walks away. "Come back!" I yell, to no avail, but that's besides the point.

How do you effectively campaign to liberate the tastebuds of your loved ones? Is there anyone in your life who refuses to eat the food you enjoy?

Thanks, Mr. Steingarten, and I apologize for my long-windedness!

Sincerely,

Adam Roberts

[tryska]

1) My taste in bagels has been ravaged by Dunkin' Donuts. I am a bagel person and I come from a bagel family. Growing up in New York, we would eat wonderful bagels every Sunday and over the course of my life--post Bar Mitzvah bagel brunches, platters sent after funerals--I have eaten some pretty terrific bagels. Then I moved to Atlanta. While Atlanta produces many good things--peaches, fried chicken, Jimmy Carter--it most certainly does not produce great, or even edible bagels. That's why I started. I was confused back then, I didn't know any better. I went to Dunkin' Donuts and ordered a sesame bagel with cream cheese. The first bite was beyond awful: green fumes shooting out from each laminated crevice. I swore I would never go back. But then I did. Again. And again.

Which is all a very long way of saying that I'm addicted. Instead of overcoming a food phobia, I need to overcome a food philia. (Is philia a word?) I now crave Dunkin' Donuts bagels. I know that they are awful, disgusting plastic replicas of the real thing, but I want them. I need them. And there's no alternative. Whatever shall I do?

adam - having run across the same problem transplanting from NYC to ATL, all i can say is choose Einstein's over Dunkin Donuts. much better bagel, and closer to what they were back home.

(sorry for horning in, btw)