Cabbages and Things

I have always hated cabbage and all things cabbage—cole slaw, etc.—until just a few years ago. We have a favorite Chinese restaurant called Golden China—just a little spot in a strip mall—and they serve an incredible dish called house special chicken, which is just chicken and sauce over a bed of cabbage. I don’t know what I was thinking the first time I ordered it, but an amazing thing has happened to me since. Through that dish I began to like cabbage, and now I like it in everything: cole slaw, sauerkraut, raw cabbage, cabbage salad, anything.

The exact same thing happened to me years ago with onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, black olives, and green olives. I couldn’t stand any of them until one time my mom and dad suggested (suggested) that I eat a piece of the “sampler” pizza they ordered from The Pizza Place (unbelievable pizza place in Stephenville, TX—still operating, still the same recipe, yeah baby). In that moment, I was a believer. It was as if something was hidden inside the onions and other veggies that before was not accessible to me for some reason. But now that it was set free, it opened up a lot of new foods that also had these unique tastes. Somehow I got tuned in to the secret flavor hidden inside them, and that discovery somehow dwarfed the repulsive flavors that accompany them. Even now, when I pick up a raw cabbage or onion, I can still smell or taste that old familiar stench I remember from my early encounters. But somehow the offense is suspended as I hone in on and enjoy my pleasant discovery.

I think people are the same way. If you ask enough couples to tell their story, you will find often enough that they disliked each other when they first met. Certainly I have been surrounded by many people who I either disliked or resolved to stomach (because they were good for me?). Some of those people I have not yet learned to enjoy and may never. But some—oh some—I have found their secret flavor. So forgive me if I ignore you or pity you or smile sagaciously if you bring up something that stinks in someone I love, maybe something raw or unrefined. I smile because I know that I have found the secret flavor while you have not. Yet.