Have I ever made myself eat something out of politeness?
Yes, I remember being a dinner guest at a place where I didn’t know the host and hostess at all. They were like the family friend of someone I knew in college and he was like, “Okay I’m gonna, I have to go and, and hang out with my, you know, these friends of my parents,” and “Would you come with me?” “Oh sure, I’ll go.” But she didn’t ask us ahead of time what we might want to eat, and she plopped down in front of us, um, like a — what was it? It was, well I know it had shrimp in it, but I think it was like an egg dish. Like, it might have been like a shrimp omelette or a shrimp frittata or something. If these sound like weird dishes, it’s because like, I don’t eat shrimp, so I don’t know the kinds of things that shrimp gets cooked into.
I remember like the plate was pretty. It was a nice presentation, you know, she seemed like she was a really comfortable cook, just like whipping these things out and plopping them down in front of us. But I do not like shrimp at all. Like, I really don’t like it. But it wasn’t like a serve yourself kind of situation. She just put this plate in front of us. So I did my best. I don’t even know how I managed it. And fortunately for me, my friend also, I guess, was not a big fan of shrimp. And she, the host, at the end of the meal, she kind of laughed, and she said, “Okay, [Name], you were very polite, but I wanna have you over again. So will you please tell me what you didn’t like about the dish?” So she could tell that he was really just making his best effort. So I think I probably did a better job than he did because I didn’t know them at all and really felt compelled to you know, to make a good impression or whatever, or not insult them.