I ate my brother's cooking
On Saturday night I was texting my older brother. He's about a decade older than me so very much in a different stage of his life, though we do have a couple of overlapping hobbies (Like MtG). He's spent a lot of time in the food industry and is working towards opening his own restaurant in the near future, so he mentioned that he was preparing for a pop-up he'd be doing the next day.
Now, I've always been a bit of a picky eater. A lot of it has been texture issues or certain "feelings" in the food that have made me gag once it enters my mouth even if the taste itself isn't that bad, so I usually fall back on a lot of comfort foods when I cook for myself. I'm not opposed to trying new things but working myself up to try more than one new thing at a time is a lot, I only recently accepted mayo into my palette and it's still on a tight leash.
Despite this, I decided to go and support him, I would have been heading to my grandmother's around then anyway so I just had to leave a bit earlier in the day to avoid overbooking myself. It was at a coffee shop about 20 minutes away from me so when my brother spotted me, he called me out of the line to take my order (I don't drink caffeine anyway). After looking it over and making my choice, he offered to make it simpler for me but I asked him to make it how he'd make it for anybody else, if I ended up not liking it, that's on me.
It was a steak and egg soft-shell taco, pretty much. It had salsa verde and Cholula, two things I'd never tried before, as well as cilantro, which I did not remember if I'd eaten in the past. He went to the back to prepare and I watched a bit from the counter, though I was mostly wandering in a small area to avoid taking up space for people picking up their orders. I can only imagine what was going through his head knowing he was making it for me. Sat down when it was finally ready, took my first bite and I liked it! It's not the kind of thing I'd immediately jump to if I saw it on a menu but if I wasn't dead-set on anything else I'd definitely consider it as an option. Ate the whole thing save for a little bit of beef that was tough.
I let him know I enjoyed it and he refused to let me pay for the food. He ended up texting me later to tell me he felt accomplished and that I was the hardest customer to impress (which I attribute to him knowing I can be picky), I know he's probably going to be thinking about me enjoying what he made for a while and I hope that helps him feel more confident as he continues to work towards opening up his own place.