Today (22nd July) I went out with my fiance, housemate and some friends for my housemates birthday. We went to a local pub-restaurant called The Pewsham (https://thepewsham.com/). I’ve been there before so I knew what to expect, but I didn’t anticipate the anxiety around attempting to choose something different on the menu.
The starter wasn’t difficult. They make the most delicious home made scotch eggs, served warm with salad and a balsamic dressing. The thing that has changed is that I will now eat the salad alongside, rather than just leaving it. I did consider picking something else, but I knew out of everything they serve this was the one thing I was looking forward to the most.
The main is where I started to struggle with choices. Steak was an option, but I know i like that already and it was also quite expensive. The next choices were either lamb, salmon, a vegan chilli, haddock, a pie (I can’t remember what type now, but I instantly shut the idea down), or a couple of vegan options. None of these choices felt like something I could manage, all of them sounded a bit too scary. I ended up going for a burger. It was a pretty decent one, but I definitely felt disappointed in myself that I couldn’t manage to try a new dish. Having said that, I did make a point of leaving all of the salad in my burger instead of pulling it out. So if nothing else, I learnt today that salad in a burger isn’t terrible.
For dessert I was looking forward to their sticky toffee pudding, but they’ve changed their menu and it was no longer available. What I should have done in this situation really was just not had one. I wasn’t hungry and none of them seemed appealing to me, but I felt like I had to because I’d wanted one and people were expecting me to pick one. I ended up with a raspberry frangipane, it was actually quite nice and not something I’d usually pick, but perhaps next time not having one would be the better option.
Overall I’ve learnt that I can indeed eat salad and not hate it, and that I should probably think a bit more about how hungry I actually feel rather than just doing what people think i’ll do. Perhaps I should also pick a slightly scary dish anyway, as I don’t think finding out I don’t like something would be worse than feeling disappointed that I didn’t try.