“I don’t yet know how to eat that food...”
“Similarly, this applies to food. I don’t trust folks who say they dislike certain foods (outside of dietary restrictions, et cetera, of course). Usually, it just means they haven’t had a good version of that food or haven’t learned how to eat it. Teju Cole writes, in the above mentioned book, that in the Yorùbá language you don’t say you can’t eat or “hate” a food, you say something like: I don’t yet know how to eat that food. Natto the fermented soybean staple here in Japan, was categorically inedible for me twenty years ago, felt like eating vomit the first few times I tried it, but because so many people love it, I figured the fault was in my buds. Over years I ordered it again and again and now — BOY DO I LOVE NATTO. Truly.”
How kind of you to make your way down here.
A bit about me: I can be interested in anything, for better or worse. I love photography, travel, golf, and baseball. My latest pursuit is learning the guitar. I write a rad newsletter that I publish monthly.