Although I got my first street food experience in Paris on that first trip, I hadn’t yet plunged head first into foreign cuisine with the gusto that I do now. I was a picky kid. My mother says that the only green thing she could get me to eat as a kid was green M&Ms. Although she’s exaggerating a little, that’s not far from the truth. The only non-chocolately green things I can remember eating without a lot of objection and some gagging were lima beans and iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing. Not at the same time, of course…

Then I had to fend for myself for 6 weeks in a place where even the food I recognized tasted different from what I was used to. I spoke zero German, and while my French was pretty damn good at the time, I was certainly not up to trying to pull off a special order. I’d been warned about how rude French waiters were. Although I found that reputation to be ill-deserved, I didn’t want to press my luck.

So, I learned to eat what was put in front of me in a way that my parents had never had any luck teaching me or forcing me to do. I remember the meal that made me realize I’d achieved a milestone. Through my internship at the U.S. Embassy, I got the chance to take an afternoon/evening cruise on the Seine to attend one of the events celebrating the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. The hors d’oeuvres were a selection of patés and cheeses.

Prior to taking this trip, there is no amount of money in the world that would have gotten me to try paté. I just didn’t do that sort of thing. After so many weeks on the road eating what I could, however, I didn’t think twice about it. You probably know how this story ends. It was delicious, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

I remember announcing to my mother and stepfather after I got home that I was no longer a picky eater, and to prove it, I ate my welcome home McDonald’s cheeseburger without removing the pickles. I hated it, but I ate it, and I didn’t gag once.

Since then, I’ve eaten all sorts of things around the world. Sometimes I knew what I was getting, like the fried grasshoppers from a night market in Thailand. Sometimes, I didn’t find out until afterwards, like the fish gut soup from a sidewalk vendor also in Thailand. The important thing to me is to eat like a local as much as possible. I never understand when people travel and then seek out restaurant brands they know. They are almost always disappointed because of course their favorite meal tastes different than it does in the U.S. Worse, they miss one of the delights of travel – being a culinary tourist.

Oh, and while I now know I CAN eat anything, I also know I don’t HAVE to. Hold the pickles, please.