On picky eating: Sometimes a person may seem picky when really they’re intolerant or allergic and don’t know it. I’ve never cared for plain, cooked eggs (hard boiled, fried, scrambled, whatever). It made me sick to my stomach to think about eating them, but we weren’t allowed to be picky. We ate what we were given, and it was considered rude to complain. Food allergies were considered rare and certainly no one in our family had them. I finally figured out in my 20′s that I was allergic to several things, and that grossed out and nauseated feeling I got was an allergic reaction. And now we can see that my Mother, sister and several cousins all deal with similar food issues that were never diagnosed. If someone says they don’t want to eat something, don’t give them a hard time about it. Most of the time, we don’t know the whole story.

Saw a classic “food preferencer” once, it was in a little neighborhood sushi bar in the Ginza and an Aussie ex pat was entertaining an Aussie visitor, the expat was obviously a regular and the chef was wacking out the greatest fresh sushi I’ve ever had (It was cheap as well!) and the visitor said… wait for it… “I don’t mind sushi, but I don’t want any with raw fish”. I was so happy that the only people who understood what he said was the expat and myself!