Blog #6

My road trip to Orlando, Florida was filled with eating events. Whenever my parents would bring me to new places growing up, we always ate at the local spots, trying the best of what our new surroundings had to offer. However, on this trip, I was accompanied by three other friends, so negotiating food stops became difficult quickly. On the road, our only options for staying on pace were to eat at fast food places. Despite this, there are many places still that we do not have in Minnesota. I had made it my goal to explore the other options traveling southbound had to offer. For my travel companions, this was definitely not the case. They all wanted to eat at places they were familiar with, like McDonald's, Taco Bell, and KFC--all places we could have stopped at here at home. Eventually, I got them to compromise while driving, forcing them into trying Zaxby's, Steak 'N Shake, Krystal, and Bojangles'. I was more excited to try some foods that Florida had to offer, but I found my task of mixing it up way harder there.

In Florida, one friend in particular had no interest in local cuisine. She insisted on eating at places like Olive Garden, TGI Friday's, and Dominoes Pizza, all places we have here. And if we went somewhere local that had fresh seafood, tasty greek cuisine, or foods with a Cuban flare, she would order the most basic thing on the menu, often something like Nachos (picture the kind you get at sporting events), cheese quesadillas, and corn dogs. She refused to try anything new, and the rest of us fought tooth and nail to check out the places recommended to us by locals. Her food choices began to put a strain on the trip and were beginning to really peeve me. We ended up driving to this neat local seafood place one of the days, how I have no idea with her along. I decided to ask her why she didn't want to check out this neat seafood place near our hotel. It might be her only chance to experience the freshest possible seafood in a long time. She insisted she didn't like it, but conceded that she had only ever really had fish sticks and whatever else was served for school lunches. She seemed more willing to try when we got there, but upon looking at the menu and seeing that nothing was beer-battered and deep-fried, she elected to get some chips and salsa and a hot dog off of the kids menu. The rest of us ordered and when our food came out, the rest of us had heaping dishes of fresh shrimps, mahi mahi, and flounder, while she was served a hot dog in a bun and a side of chips with salsa, none of which were fresh or appetizing. She seemed really sad to not be included in our wonderment and shared enthusiastic eatings. I know that I could not ever change her food opinions and eating habits, but this trip was a good chance to branch out and expand her horizons. It makes me really sad to know that there are even more people as unadventurous in this world. If we take risks, we may find out there are cool food places and even tastier dishes out there to consume. Places like these that are local are suffering when we neglect to try new things, and that makes me really sad. As for me, I'll continue to love exploring new places and trying new foods.