Peanut butter and BBQ sauce: Delicious or disgusting?

what’s the worst that can happen if you tried something unusual like the D-Stark burger? Creative Commons.

This past weekend I indulged in a juicy burger topped not with flaccid lettuce, ordinary cheese and banal ketchup, but with a delicious combination of peanut butter and barbeque sauce. It was sweet, it was nutty, it was—as you can imagine—quite gooey. The peanut butter brought out the sweetness of the barbeque sauce, and the tanginess of the barbeque sauce perfectly complemented the rich nuttiness of the peanut butter. The redish-tan condiments oozed onto my fingers; my palate cried out in ecstasy. It. Was. Fantastic.

This food-gasm was courtesy of the D-Stark burger at Patrick’s On Third. I had been eying the burger for the last few years, but was unable to commit until now. I can’t believe I waited so long for such pleasure.

I was never that picky of an eater, so while imaging consuming such a burger might gross some of you out, I welcomed the opportunity with open taste buds. Odd food combinations were not something new to me. Bananas and marinara sauce? Yes, please. Potato chips and applesauce? Sweet and salty and delicious. Same thing goes for pizza and applesauce and grilled cheese and applesauce. (To be honest, applesauce is to me what ketchup is to many.) Scrambled eggs and tortilla chips is my favorite breakfast, and canned tuna and pasta makes a fantastic dinner.

My openness to food experiments is a trait not shared by everyone. I read an article no too long ago about a recently recognized eating disorder: Adult Selective Eating. Selective eaters are basically the adult equivalent of picky eating associated with children, where the range of food consumed is quite limited. The cause of this behavior is unknown, but the limited food range could possibly be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder, the heightened sensitivity of “supertasters” or simply not outgrowing childhood behavior.

I don’t know how much I believe about this new disorder. I agree that some food habits can be formed from obsessions or heightened sensitivity, but, from my experience, I believe many of these so-called “selective eaters” are just scared to try new things. They don’t push themselves. I feel people psychologically limit themselves to experiencing new foods based on earlier food experiences, and they don’t recognize that our palates change and develop.

I used to hate tomatoes; now I can eat them like apples. Tuna used to freak me out; now I eat it straight from the can. Our food tolerabilities and preferences have changed since we were in elementary school. Yet, some adults seem stuck in the same habits and have sort of preconditioned themselves to dislike something because they have disliked it in the past.

The question I have for these adults, and perhaps readers, who find odd food combinations off-putting is: what’s the worst that can happen if you tried something unusual like the D-Stark burger? That you might not like it? That isn’t a good enough reason for me.

There are so many great foods and food combinations in the world, and my advice to these selective eaters is to take a risk. Acknowledge that you’ve changed in many ways since you were little, including your palate. Eating is an experience to be enjoyed. How much can you enjoy eating the same things?

4 thoughts on “Peanut butter and BBQ sauce: Delicious or disgusting?

  1. Eating your favourites is always fun, but trying new things definately broadens ones horizon a bit and keeps life full of flavours if you will. But BBC sauce and Peanut butter is a bit weird for my taste.

  2. This is one of those things – You like peanut butter and you like bbq sauce, but when you eat them together it just doesnt sound right!

  3. Scrambled eggs and tortilla chips? Yum. canned tuna and pasta? Perfect. Potato chips and applesauce? Well, that is weird to me, to be honest. But I do love that what we called weird food combination. I love to have my fried sweet potato or cassava with a fresh chili.

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