A long long time ago, I didn't like to eat raw food.
I didn't like to eat raw salmon/ tuna/ whatever.
Like why would anyone want to eat raw stuff when you could have them cooked?
Aren't raw stuff cold and clammy and potentially hazardous to your health?
This was when I was around 17 years old.
One day, I decided that I would learn how to enjoy raw food especially sashimi.
I knew it could be done. I've known for a long time that humans can get used to almost anything.
As long as there is sufficient exposure to the experience. Humans are always able to adapt.
Well, WHY would I want to even bother to try to learn to like sashimi?
Most people would just leave it as it is. Why bother right?
Ok. For me, I always believe in learning, in understanding why.
I want to understand why 126 million Japanese are able to appreciate such a product.
If there are so many people who like something, there MUST be some merits to it.
It IS possible that I never find any good in it for myself.
But I wanted to at least try to appreciate it.
So what did I do.
I previously did not mind going to Sakae Sushi.
When I was 17, the sushi there wasn't too bad.
(I never go to Sakae anymore. The sushi is of very poor quality. For the same price, I can easily find better sushi)
Well, anyway, I went to Sakae Sushi when I was very very hungry. And ordered some salmon sushi.
I would take a plate or 2. Then I would just continue to eat the normal cooked stuff.
Cos everything tastes better when you're hungrier. So that helped me to be able to eat the raw fish.
Naturally, the first few times I did this, I did not appreciate the raw fish very much.
But as time went on, after 5 attempts, 10 attempts, I started to appreciate raw fish.
It started out as, I did not mind it anymore, and soon, I began to like it and was willing to consume other types of raw fish.
From then on, I was able to appreciate the subtle sweetness of raw fish.
(Note, I did not go every day or every week, I went regularly enough and tried it sufficiently enough.)
More recently, around 4 years back, I decided to do something similar.
With the Korean wave and all that, I decided to overcome my reluctance to kimchi.
I don't take raw garlic very well. And I still don't.
Kimchi is made with garlic. Lots of it.
Similarly, the reason why I decided to do this was, if 50 million Koreans like it, there has to be something good about it.
I started out in the same way. There was this Korean restaurant near the place I used to work. I waited til I was very hungry before I went to eat. They would provide the side dishes like all Korean restaurants before the main course came. And I would grudgingly stuff some kimchi into my mouth. Being hungry really made it more approachable. When the main course came, I would mix some kimchi into my dish and continue to eat it.
Similar to the situation with raw fish, I gradually got used to kimchi.
I now enjoy kimchi when mixed with my food. In fact, I sometimes crave for it. However, I still am still unable to really appreciate kimchi just by itself. Strange. Considering that I'm ok with a spoon of rice with kimchi on top.
Many folks have asked me why I even bothered to do the above.
They are ok with not liking the food and not understanding why anyone appreciates the product.
What do/did I gain from this experience? Considering that there is plenty of other Japanese/Korean cuisine to try.
My response to this is simple. I like to try new things. There has to be some goodness to it considering that millions of people like it. And to me, this is really a challenge for myself. Because, why not?
I now am able to like something which I once did not like. And that's a good thing right?
Ok so what's this whole post about?
Well, you can get used to spending less. You can get used to wanting less.
You can get used to it such that you don't even have wants.
You can get too used to good things and eventually take it for granted.
Or you could get used to buying a SGD500 bag and feel to kick and start to buy more expensive stuff to get the thrill of buying.
You can also get used to bad things and overcome them.
Or you can get used to a bad thing like a bad job and stay in the job and console yourself that "all jobs are like this" and not do anything about it.
So you see. Humans are adaptable. You can get used to anything. Good or bad, it's all up to you.
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