Learning to Eat Mushrooms

I’ve always hated mushrooms. Anyone who knows me knows this. I know this is strange, considering I’m a vegetarian and that mushrooms are the meat of the veggie world, yadda yadda yadda. I’ve tried to like them, really I have. But…I…just…hate…them!
I’m eating them as I write this blog. AND, I ate them for breakfast this morning.
And it’s not just mushrooms. I ate olives last night for dinner. And I hate those just as much as mushrooms, though I haven’t tried to like them nearly as much.
“What is going on?” you may ask. Do mushrooms and olives taste better here? Have my taste buds changed? Or started working? Why am I eating these things?
The truth is not nearly as interesting as any of those theories. It’s just that I keep eating at people’s homes and this, in a karmic bashing of my taste buds, keeps being the food served to me. People here don’t often encounter a vegetarian, you see, so after they finish looking at me with bulging bug-eyes, I guess they figure that mushrooms and olives are the best thing to give me, since they are generally widely loved by the veggie community. Who am I to turn these “tasty treats” down after they’ve gone to such effort for me? So I smile, mumble how delicious the food is, and try plugging my nose as the food goes down.
And it’s getting a little bit easier each day. In fact, tonight I am eating mushroom quiche SORT of by choice. I mean, it’s leftover quiche from lunch with the family this week, but I didn’t have to take it home, warm it up and eat it. Yes, I’m lazy, and yes, I’m hungry, and YES, there’s nothing else in my fridge, but STILL.
I’ve decided to make the mushroom my logo here in Zimbabwe, a place where I’m quickly learning that flexibility is key to survival. From now on, every time the electricity goes out, something I’ve asked to have done takes days or weeks (rather than minutes or hours), bugs invade my home, I have to wash my hair in a bathtub without a plug, or I get lost/have a car breakdown, I’m just going to remember the fact that in Zimbabwe, at age 27,I have finally learned to eat mushrooms, even if I don’t like them.