Day 33: Converting

Back on Day 17, I blogged about how I ate everything except sushi and Indian food. By the end of Day 17, one of my friends made me a sushi convert. That same friend made me an Indian food convert yesterday.

Over the past 33 days, one of the things that I have come to appreciate the most about myself is my newfound willingness to open up (even if it is only in the smallest of fractions). I have a tendency to be closed off... in more ways than one. I've passed up new experiences to avoid possible failure. I've stayed away from doing things differently to avoid negative perceptions. I've bottled up emotions to avoid confrontation. I've put up walls to avoid being hurt. And, I've shunned new foods... because I'm stubborn. These really don't look so great lined up one after the other, but I'm working on it.

So, last night, my friend offered to help me with my new thing for the day. He wanted to surprise me. I don't like surprises. He eventually told me we were going to make a new food. We went grocery shopping, which gave me no clues at all: chicken breast, ginger, cashews, buttermilk, tomato sauce, and rice. He brought the rest of the ingredients from home (cinnamon, bay leaves, cilantro, cumin, turmeric, and other stuff I don't remember). I initially thought it might be a Chinese dish, and that my "new thing" would be cooking Chinese food. Turns out, we were cooking and eating an Indian dish Williams-Sonoma Slow Cooked Chicken Korma. The verdict? It was really good. We ate out on my deck, and I even finished my dinner before he did. Pleasantly surprised all around.