I am an unlikely candidate for a food snob. I spent my childhood avoiding all foods of the vegetable variety. It took me over an hour to eat dinner every night because I was so distracted by everything going on around me and couldn't sit still. Food was more like fuel than anything else.
As I got older, I became more adventurous and started trying foods that I had never heard of or that I had been scared to try, and I discovered that I enjoyed them. Travel, especially international travel, provides excellent opportunities to broaden your food horizons because you're already in an adventurous mindset. When I traveled, I found myself trying foods that I wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot pole when I was younger, and I brought the adventurous spirit home with me and continued to embrace new and different foods.
As my food horizons broadened, my cooking knowledge improved. When you're feeling adventurous, a recipe that involves ginger isn't as daunting as it used to be. I found myself making dishes that I never would have had the guts to order in a restaurant, and then I found myself ordering similar dishes when I was out. Then I realized that I could cook food that tasted better than the food I could get at a restaurant, and I started wanting to eat only at restaurants that offered meals that I couldn't or wouldn't make on my own. And I started not wanting to go to restaurants that served food that wasn't as good as my own.
That's when I realized that I am a food snob.
I sniff at restaurants that serve frozen food or that feel the need to coat every dish on their menu with a thick slab of cheese or so much salt that I am thirsty for days afterward. If I am faced with the option of eating home-cooked food or restaurant food, I would choose home-cooked food 9 times out of 10, unless I was looking for the convenience of being served a meal--or if the restaurant offered a wonderful meal.
Unfortunately, there is always a problem with the restaurants that offer wonderful meals. B and I were at a four-star steakhouse in a nearby town a few weeks ago, and I kept saying throughout the meal, "I don't know why we don't come here more often! This food is so good! This restaurant is great!" Then we got the check. And we remembered why we don't go there often.
