As a further elaboration: growing up, I absolutely hated pasta salad. I could not and would not eat it. But one day, when I was about 22-23, I was working somewhere that includes meals, since shifts were literally all day for a week (save eight hours for sleeping). The cook made a pasta salad that I could only describe as “orgasmic.” I ate that same pasta salad for every meal for the next two days until they finally tossed the leftovers. Ever since then, I have been “converted” to enjoy pasta salad. That one dish completely changed how my body reacts to a food that I already tried several times.
Menudo. Genuinely, that shit is delicious, I love menudo.
There was a neighborhood cookout, just to get to know each other. One lady and her son brought menudo to the event. Unfortunately, white people have a weird reaction to the execution of the concept ‘Eat the entire animal’.
She was upset because she thought it was her fault no one wanted to try any of her hard work. I decided, “Hey, I wasn’t sold on raw sushi until I quit being a pussy. Why not?”
Literally? Life changing. Holy shit, it opened up a whole door into how awesome and how creative Mexican cuisine is.