You eat a lot of Asian food. Probably 3/4 of the restaurants in the valley. If I didn’t live so damn far (okay, not really far, but in between Lehi and Saratoga Springs it makes it difficult to go places without it taking forever), I’d be trying Mexican and Indian all over the valley (I’ve exhausted most of Utah county).
Yeah. I love all sorts of food. I really love trying any new place that pops up. Asian food is more diverse, imho, than all the rest of the food in the world.
There is a lot of room for different types of Hispanic food in this market. "Mexican" food is awesome. I love it. There is even room for a wider variety of "Mexican" food, but what about Honduras? What about Brazil? What about Chile? What about Peru? What about Columbia? What about Argentina? Some of those places have limited representation, but I want wider representation. I want to be able to decide what Argentinian place I go to, not just have the option to go to THE Argentinian place in the valley.
Growing up my parents were extremely food adventurous. If there was a new type of restaurant they wanted to try it. They were also extremely intelligent food tasters. This was well before google. They would eat a completely new kind of food to them and do their best to identify the ingredients, then they would try to make that food at home. My mother focused on Asian food and my father did more Mediterranean/Middle Eastern. My Mother was from Missouri, her family ran some diners and she was pretty well versed on southern cooking. I doubt my father cooked much of anything before he met my mom, being male and from Kanab, Utah. But he loved to cook.
I've said many times my happiest memories are from being in the kitchen with my parents. They cooked together a good 4-5 nights a week. we sat at the dinner table and ate every evening. That was VERY important to them. It's something I haven't done in my own family and it's the thing I regret the most.
Eating out and trying new things is part of how I remember and honor my parents. I miss them.