May 27th, 2008 by Jemaleddin Cole

Lately I’ve been feeling pretty adventurous. Over the course of my life I’ve waffled between a complete openness to new things and a desire for sameness and consistency. As a child I was terribly picky, but once I left home and realize that nobody was going to make food like Mom (actually Dad, most of the time), I started trying all sorts of new food, and new experiences. 

So here are some of the new things I’ve been trying lately:

• Korean food: I don’t know how I managed to make it this far in life without trying Korean cuisine, but I can’t believe how much I was missing out. I had some Dol-sot Bi-bim-bab at Nam Kang that was almost life-altering in its goodness, and the panchan was excellent. Somehow we managed to get through an entire meal without any kimchi, so I’ll have to go back and make a special request.
• Fish: As a child I ate fish-sticks, but since then, the old fish I’ve had has been raw in the form of sushi or sashimi, and occasionally smoked fish like lox. Cooked fish has been a mystery to me until I finally worked up the courage for fish tacos, which were okay, a few bites of somebody’s pintado, which was great, and some blackened tilapia that was excellent. Just today I had some flounder that was so-so, but no worse than your average bland chicken dish. Again: stupid, stupid, stupid me, for not trying this stuff sooner.
• Beer: Okay, I’ve obviously never had a problem with trying beer, but over the last few months I’ve certainly expanded my range. The bar where my office usually heads for happy hour has a bunch of great local brews on tap, and over a hundred varieties in bottles. Fordham’s Copperhead? Delightful. The Brewer’s Art’s Resurrection? Heavenly. I’m still fond of my old standy-bys, but it’s good to have some variety.
• Dating: Yeah, I’m seeing somebody. 

I’m having a wonderful time, in fact, and she’s an incredible young woman. Smart, accomplished, sweet, pretty, kind, and all sorts of amazing - quite an impressive lady. I’ve been nervous to talk about it, not because I’m uncomfortable with what’s going on - in fact, the defining quality of the relationship is its natural-feeling awesomeness - but because I know that some of my friends haven’t gotten to a point where they feel okay with the idea. No, it’s not their business, which is why I haven’t let them stop me, but I don’t want to make anyone else unduly uncomfortable. Trust me: I know how weird this is. But obviously the grieving process is different for somebody who occasionally thinks about Kellie’s death and a guy who has spent the last six months confronted with it every waking and most sleeping hours. Let’s say that I’m on the crash course.

Regardless: I was terrified as to what it would be like to re-enter the dating pool after all these years of married life, but somehow I lucked out. I met a girl on an online dating site, chatted her up innocently in email, met her for lunch, and immediately found myself deeply smitten. What’s funny is that it’s all this incredible coincidence: neither of us thought we were in the right frame of mind to be dating, I certainly never planned to be looking at this point in my life, and quite honestly, we wouldn’t have been right for one another if we’d met when we were younger. But she’s surprisingly similar to me in attitudes, opinions, interests and outlook, and more surprising still is that neither of us is annoyed by our similarities. I’m gob-smacked by how well it’s going.

So that’s how things are for me. Any questions?

16 Responses to “Trying New Things”

1. very awesome. except for the fish/beer; that’s just weird. i’ll call you sometime and try to prove the my girl is better than yours… ok, not really, but i’m excited for you, and thinking that i should call… but the real question for you: does she play spades? :)

   — colin May 28th, 2008 at 10:53 am #

2. I love it, man.

   — kev May 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm #

3. @colin: your girl is incredible, there’s no doubt, but mine has very different and equally exceptional qualities. I think we could call it a tie, but yours has an edge in committedness with the whole wedding thing. How about we reevaluate in 6 months?

   @kev: The Tilapia? The Korean cuisine? Not surprised. :-P

   — Jemaleddin May 28th, 2008 at 2:18 pm #

4. I’m glad you’re happy :)

   — ses5909 May 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm #

5. @ses5909: Hey, thanks! Me too! :-)

   @colin: I can confirm a familiarity with and exposure to Spades as a kid, but no recent play. She’s very good at the Scrabble though and was willing to play me at Trivial Pursuit (which takes guts!), so it’s safe to say that she likes games.

   — Jemaleddin May 28th, 2008 at 7:34 pm #

6. J: She’s very good at the Scrabble though and was willing to play me at Trivial Pursuit (which takes guts!), so it’s safe to say that she likes games.

   S: I don’t remember ever losing to you at either game. I don’t think it takes guts to take you on. Sounds more like sharks circling a drowning man.
   ;)

   — skank May 29th, 2008 at 8:03 am #

7. I like Korean food, too, except for kim chee. I don’t like cabbage no matter what you do to it. Ugh!

   My first Korean food was a potluck at a Korean church. Very good! I also ate in a Korean restaurant in Magadan run by a North Korean communist/entrepreneur. Everything was great except one of the types of seaweed. It was only so-so. Unfortunately I can’t get Mrs. Skank to go to a Korean restaurant. She threw up after trying Korean food prepared by Korean nurses at Swedish Covenant Hospital. And once that delightful woman has formed an opinion on food, she is not open to testing it.

   — skank May 29th, 2008 at 8:09 am #

8. J: Fordham’s Copperhead? Delightful. The Brewer’s Art’s Resurrection? Heavenly. I’m still fond of my old standy-bys, but it’s good to have some variety.

   Why haven’t your out of town visitors been introduced to such local delights? Diet Coke is great especially with lime, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a good microbrew.

   Come out here and I’ll introduce you to Roadkill Red, Wild Rice Lager, Possum Porter, Fat Squirrel, Spotted Cow, and Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, as well as others.

   — skank May 29th, 2008 at 8:14 am #

9. @Skank: I don’t know that you’d want to play me at the 80s edition of Trivial Pursuit: it’s a lot of pop culture that you were busy disdaining during the 80s.

   I’m curious to try kimchi - how bad can it be? And in my zeal to talk about my special lady I forgot to mention the other new foods I’ve tried: lamb, swiss chard, and foie gras! All delicious!

   And if the Skank clan wants to make a run out here, I’ll be happy to introduce you to the local breweries. I’ve spent a goodly amount of time at the Ram’s Head trying out the various Fordham specialties (their seasonals are atrocious, but the regular brews are all tasty). Being married to a teetotaler for all those years certainly kept me out of trouble, but dating a girl with good taste in beer has its charms as well.

   — Jemaleddin May 29th, 2008 at 9:08 am #

10. Who said anything about the 80s edition? I like the original one.

    And I wasn’t disdaining the 80’s pop culture. Three of those years I was in grad school full time and worked 20 hours a week. Then I moved to a place that had no culture from any decade. And to top it off I was too busy working and too poor to do much with pop culture. I don’t know if I had the time or money to see much more than the six or eight movies I saw in that decade. And Little Skank was stuck on Wee Sing tapes so I didn’t get too much pop music in either.

    BTW, what was the name of Sir Isaac Newton’s dog? No internet searching allowed.

    And I would be delighted to try the local liquid delicacies next time I come.

    Next time you’re here I’ll take you out to try alligator pasties.

    But being serious for a moment I am delighted that you are dating such an astonishing woman.

    — skank May 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am #

11. a) I thought you liked the 80-year-olds edition.

    b) Blah, blah, blah, the life I chose didn’t allow me time to listen to the Thompson Twins. Your loss, pal.

    c) Diamond. I never forget the dumb things you’ve told me.

    d) Me too. I’ll have to tell you her coolest news offline. She rocks.

    — Jemaleddin May 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm #

12. But have you tried the kimchi blue moon cod protein shake?

    — CanadiensFan May 30th, 2008 at 7:12 am #

13. @CandiensFan: If my luck holds up, NEVER!

    — Jemaleddin May 30th, 2008 at 9:03 am #

14. I hear it works with two straws…

    — CanadiensFan May 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm #

15. I’m really happy for you!

    Have you tried any of the varieties of Abita Beer?…Turbodog?…Purple Haze? mmm

    — Jolene June 1st, 2008 at 6:07 am #

16. Abita? Nope - sounds good - I’ll look for it!

    — Jemaleddin June 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm #

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website