eating new foods

[vampiresdontsparkle]

Hi the title says it really, I would like to eat new foods, like fish [only eat tuna from the tin] tomatoes when not cooked into food mushrooms ect.

I feel really strange about trying new foods and work myself up to feeling/being sick so any tips or advice would be gratefully received.

Thank you

Eat out more often, perhaps? If you're in a relaxed atmosphere and the 'new food' is prepared properly by a real chef then it's more likely to be a successful experience than if you are home alone, battling with a piece of fish and working up anxiety. Then, if you decide you like the fillet of sole or whatever it is... you can approach it at home with a little less trepidation.

Tomatoes are different, of course :) How about growing some in a pot in the garden? There's something truly lovely about picking a properly ripe tomato off a vine and popping it into your mouth! You'll never get anything fresher or more delicious.

Although I am a very experienced cook I also feel quite nervous about trying out new foods. I get anxious about whether I am going to cook things in the 'right' way, and whether I will look like a numpty if I ask the fishmonger/butcher how to do something. However I have always found people eager to share their idea about ways to cook things, except once when I asked a greengrocer at the height of the holiday season in St Davids how to cook samphire - he gave me the information but he was just a little bit grumpy having clearly spent a long day serving silly tourists.

Some nice cookery books may be a good way in? Ones that are a good read as well as giving you new recipes, eg. I love to read Gennaro Contaldo's Passione for the stories about his childhood on the Amalfi coastline, and after drooling over the recipes for a few years I eventually muster up the courage to have a go at one. I find Jamie Oliver's early cookbooks excellent for a good range of easy to do dishes and he is aiming for starter chefs so quite reassuring, eg, on telling you that it really does only take a minute or so for prawns to cook through.

(also a relaxing assitance with cooking! as the fridge magnet says: I love to cook with wine and sometimes I even put it in the food.)

thanks for the replies, I cant afford at the moment to be eating out but when I do I will nick other peoples.

I will be brave and get Dp to cook a fish curry with white fish and try to like it.