Exciting New Foods or Familiar Favorites?

I watch a lot of cooking competition shows, and it always amazes me what kinds of dishes chefs can come up with despite bizarre ingredients, time constraints, or other rules. One of my favorites is Chopped, where chefs get mystery baskets with four unknown – and often odd – ingredients and have to use them in an appetizer, entrée, or dessert.

But as much as I enjoy seeing their creativity, I can’t say it’s something I necessarily share. I may occasionally try a new recipe, but a lot of the time I stick with the tried and true. I often feel a little embarrassed by this, like it’s a bad thing not to try new foods or recipes all the time.

Then I read a great article titled “Eating the same thing isn’t failing”, and it got me thinking that there are good things about both approaches.

Why eating the same thing helps

In the article, Ashlie Stevens points out that food culture encourages us to go for novelty and to see reusing the same recipes as shameful. She writes: “And so we learn, almost accidentally, to confuse repetition with stagnation, when in fact, for most of us, it is repetition that makes eating feel possible at all.”

She points out that in stressful times or occasions where we need to focus a lot of energy elsewhere, trying to find the bandwidth for some new recipes or food experiment simply isn’t possible. More than that, having familiar foods, something you know you’ll enjoy, is very comforting, especially if other aspects of your life are difficult, like challenging work or suffering a loss. There’s a reason people bring casseroles and other one-pot meals to those who are grieving.

As Stevens says, “These were the meals that asked very little of you, so that you could give more of yourself to somewhere else.”

This makes perfect sense to me. It reminds me of how some people appreciate wearing a uniform, or adopt their own kind of uniform, because it removes the friction and mental effort of trying to decide what to wear on a particular day.

And I know for myself that when I’m doing meal planning, I don’t often have the time or energy to come up with fancy new options. Sometimes I do, but more often I prefer to stick with things I know – especially since then I also know how much effort goes into making the dish.

When novelty beckons

That being said, it can still be fun to experiment sometimes. This is often true for me more when I’m on vacation and have a little more time to experiment.

Summer is also good for this because I might see something new at the Farmers’ Market and will want to see if I can figure out a good way to use it. That’s how I discovered I liked ratatouille. I was trying to find a preparation of eggplant that I liked, and my first attempt – roasted eggplant – wasn’t something I enjoyed. But I kept trying and discovered that I like both baba ganoush and ratatouille.

The other thing that encourages me to experiment is getting my share from Walden Local Meats. I never quite know what will be in the bag, so when they include cuts of meat that I’m less familiar with, I have to figure out how to use them. Like the first time I got ground pork, I wasn’t quite sure what to make until I found a good pork meatball recipe.

And the great thing about these occasional experiments is that you might discover something that will become a new familiar favorite.

No right or wrong approach

Some people get tired of eating the same thing a lot and will try new foods and recipes fairly often. Other people can eat the same thing over and over and still enjoy it. Both approaches are fine, and it’s also fine if you go back and forth between the two.

At the end of the day, if you have a meal you enjoy and that works for you, that’s really all that matters.