Just Try It! How Do You Convince People To Try New Foods?

Whether you’re traveling in Asia or at a friend’s house for dinner, trying a new food is its own kind of culinary adventure! The thing is, though, sometimes stepping outside our comfort zone to try a strange dish or sample an unfamiliar ingredient can take a real leap of faith. How do you convince yourself or the people you’re with to try something new?

For ourselves, we take the route of curious anthropologist. We try to stay open-minded and wait to decide whether we like something or not until we’ve given it a fair try. If we’re feeling squeamish, we tell ourselves, “One bite won’t kill me!” (We do draw the line if we’re at all unsure about the food safety of the dish we’re being served, though!)

For other people, we try to be patient. We offer bites of our food and tell them exactly what’s in it. We have also found that describing how we first heard about this dish and what it is we like about it will set people at ease.

What about you? Are you an adventurous eater? Do you also try to convince your companions to try something new?

Related: How Do You Get Fussy Adults to Eat Their Vegetables?

(Image: Flickr member jen_maiser licensed under Creative Commons)