Plight of a Picky Eater

The palate of a child is pretty limited. Chicken fingers, cheese, bread, peanut butter, mashed potatoes, and any kind of sweet (ice cream, fruit, candy) are the only things almost any child will eat without complaint. They are notorious picky eaters. Apparently I am still a picky eater even though my food preferences have increased significantly from my childhood. Most of you know my "will not eat" list but here's a refresher...

• mayonnaise: this includes aioli, remoulade, tarter sauce, honey mustard, and I'm cautious with Hollandaise. I'm cautious with all sauces.
• sour cream--with the exception of cheese sauces
• cream cheese--with the exception of cream cheese icing, yum!
• ketchup
• dressing--any salad and Thanksgiving variety
• raw celery
• raw cauliflower
• blue cheese

For health reasons I've also eliminated most fried foods and dark chocolate from my diet. The list is probably longer but when you consider how many dishes are made with mayonnaise (chicken salad) or sour cream it is limiting enough as is. I do like things that some people are not fond of...

• anchovies
• avocados
• oysters
• artichokes
• hummus
• jalapenos

Anyway, I went to Cheddar's last night with my folks in Warner Robins. I ordered the grilled fish tacos with no corn slaw (remember, slaw is mayonnaise based) with corn and a garden salad, no dressing, as my two sides. Here is the menu item I ordered.

When our food arrived there was some nasty slop slathered all over my fish AND a ramekin of extra slop on the plate as well. I asked mom to taste it and she said it probably had mayonnaise in it. I asked our waitress and she said it was a spicy tarter sauce. This was clearly not mentioned on the menu. I sent it back and asked for plain fish in the tortillas. My mom offered me some of her baked potato. I smiled and told her to look at her potato and tell me what was on it. Sour cream. No thanks. My dad offered me some of his french fries. No fried food; no thanks. The wait really wasn't that long but the whole thing just seemed silly to me. If I was more open to eating disgusting foods, i.e. tarter sauce or even the corn slaw, everything would have been fine. My fish tacos, sans-slop, finally arrived and I adorned them with lettuce from my salad and some of my corn. They were fantastic. Despite the things that I will and will not eat I do love food. I will, however, not even try something if I have prior knowledge or suspicion that it contains mayonnaise. My sister tricked me once into eating chocolate cake made with mayonnaise. It was delicious but I didn't have a second slice. Part of it is a mental thing and part of it is the fact that mayonnaise is really fattening. But the biggest issue is that it's disgusting.