There are a lot of ways to prepare food in this huge glorious world…. and the more you travel and meet people from places other than your own, the more you will be open to the diverse ingredients and culinary opportunities that are available in our interconnected modern world. I am fortunate in that I was raised in a military family, and got to travel the world as a kid. We lived for four years in Spain. One day a neighbor showed up at our door with his eighteen year old daughter. He had met my Air Force father who is from the US South, and my mother who was born in Hungary and raised in Germany… he explained that his daughter would be available to babysit my parent’s young children. So for a while she came over to care for us children when my parents went out… it wasn’t long and she got work in a beauty shop frequented by American women. After a while she came to live in our home taking care of us kids and helping with household chores while working in the nearby beauty shop. I suspect her father thought that through our family she might meet a young American who would marry her and take care of her. Her life might be immeasurably enriched materially by such a meeting. She had her own room, cooked many of our meals and helped keep the house up. It wasn’t long before she attracted the eye of a businessman nearby, he owned the deli/bar/restaurant called ‘Pinky’s’ in Torrejon. I recall him and his friends serenading her one evening, singing Spanish songs outside her window as she looked down at them. I enjoyed his visits because he always brought the best foods from his deli to share with the family (and Spanish deli food is great!)… Yes, that was quite an experience. And in time the two of them married, and we lost our free housekeeper (and the cool deli foods). But the cooking she did was fine also, and she and my mother traded recipes, so she learned how to make German Roladen, and Hungarian Goulash while my mother learned of the beauty of Paella and potato tortillas…. and our family was enriched by the melding of these various cultures and foods.
I must say that there is not a lot of real food that I don’t enjoy…. and I owe much of it to those long interminable trips through the Pyrenees, Spain, France and Germany when we had to eat anything that came our way, whether we liked it or not, the alternative was the bologna and bread we usually had on hand.