I used to think that I wasn’t a picky eater, but now realize that growing up my picky eating was overshadowed by my younger brother’s extreme picky eating.
For several years the only meat he would eat was baloney. He would sit at the dinner table for hours and refuse to eat something that he thought he didn’t like.
But I realize now that I had some of the same issues. I wasn’t crazy about the food on my plate touching, even if it was food that went together like stuffing and turkey.
The biggest problem I had was with “little green water bags”, also known as peas. My pea-phobia probably got started when as a little kid I “helped” my grandmother pick peas and ended up eating most of what I picked while shelling them. Cue Linda Blair scene in “The Exorcist”.
When I would eat at restaurants I would always ask if the mixed vegetables contained peas (they always did) and if so ask them not to put any on my plate.
At family dinners I would spend as long as it took to separate the peas from the carrots if they were mixed together.
It took a trip to England and a fish and chip shop where they offered “mushy peas” with gravy on my fries to cure me of my aversion to peas. I ordered it so I could get the full experience and found I actually liked them!
Were you a picky eater with certain foods? Are you still a picky eater?
