Sunday Night With John: Reluctantly I Admit, I'm A Foodie

My first interconnected blog series entitled: "Examining the Invisible," starts today and will run for the next five Sundays. This series examines who is John Paul Derryberry, both the person and the speaker, halfway to age 70. I always strive to lead by example and if I’m continually asking my readers and audiences to examine who they are, I too, must consistently walk that path.

Without anymore fanfare:

Part one of  "Examining the Invisible: Reluctantly, I Admit I’m a Foodie"  

One day I was sitting in a gourmet diner in Delta, Wisconsin, awaiting my order of Hotcakes, a Norwegian-style thin pancake with diced jalapenos. I took my first bite and, as the sweetness of the pancake mixed with the spiciness of the jalapenos, my mouth was in heaven. I gave out an "oh-my-gosh-this-is-great" groan. It was official. I had crossed over to the dark side of the food culture. I was a “foodie”. The transition took place over many years because I was the type of person who always thought foodies were pretentious and snooty. Frankly, I thought they were talking out their butts when they would go on some lengthy, poetic ode about the flavor combination exploding in their mouths. Today, I reluctantly admit to the world, I was wrong. Some food is gourmet, with flavor explosions, and some food is not. A spectrum runs between them. I try to navigate that spectrum closer to the flavor explosion end.

Now, it’s not like there are no pretentious snobs dotting this subsection of the foodie culture, because there definitely are. I would argue that there are pretentious snobs in every subsection of every culture but the point is that I gradually grew to a better understanding of why people engage in the foodie culture.  It’s the same reason I can rattle off the leading scorer of the Milwaukee Bucks from 1994 (Glenn Robinson). I’m just overly engaged in basketball because I love it so much. I guess I could say I’m a NBA “foodie”.  The foodie and the basketball junkie are one and the same. Foodies post Instagram pictures of their meals, not so they will seem to be at a higher level of life than others, but because they enjoy a cultured meal experience and want to share it with the world. There is nothing wrong with being knowledgeable about the way different cultures prepare food, or, about the fine spices used in what we are eating, and how different flavors play off each other.  

My slow change into a foodie started with Thai Turkey Burgers with a peanut sauce and jalapenos, and, a pineapple fruit salad. The spiciness, peanut flavors, and sweetness of the pineapple made my mouth smile. Next, was my friend Ryan’s pepper jelly, which burned my mouth but in a good way. After that I was off, and slowly but surely, places that did not dabble in the correct flavor palettes no longer received my business. Places that served authentic Mexican food, the kind that does not layer everything with a pound of cheese; and places that specialized in great sushi, placing veggies in a way I had never experienced, were getting my frequent business.

I had evolved, and isn’t that the point of life -- to evolve? We constantly want to better ourselves, to change who we are, but fail to engage in any actual activities that push our boundaries. We wait for some sign -- some grand sign -- to show us the way, but really it’s getting the courage to try raw oysters while on vacation in Georgia. We must become uncomfortable. We must have healthy confrontations. We must try things that scare the crap out of us to truly evolve and reach our potential. If we fail to do this, we end up becoming the old grandpa yelling about how things were better in his day. No, they weren’t, Grandpa.

We cannot evolve from the safety of our little corner of the world.

Did I completely change and give up all my bad food habits? No, after races, I still chow down on Taco Bell and, when my wife is out of town, I live off of cinnamon toast crunch and pizza rolls. But, those are just trips down memory lane. They are no longer the first food I think about when I get hungry. Do I post pictures on social media of my meals? Nope, haven’t crossed that boundary yet, but I have thought about it. That is the thing about evolving. When we constantly attempt to change for the better we do not always know where we will land.  For this new foodie, the idea that I’m not done experiencing new flavors excites me. As I age, and reach 45, 55, and 65, I will still want to adapt, to taste new flavors, and push to evolve into a better version of myself.