Lunch Date with Sneezy

DF has the week off (thanks, "use or lose" vacation time!) and the boys went to MDO yesterday, so we had another exciting day date. DF stopped at Gibson's donuts on the way home from dropping off the boys, so we were sugared up and ready to go! The day started off with household chores including leaf raking, bathroom scrubbing, and searching for rechargeable batteries + the charger. It continued on with sweeping, mopping, and TV viewing. Oh yes, thrilling stuff folks.

But wait, before you lose interest, there was a tasty lunch! We went to the buffet at Golden India in Overton Square. It was great!

Why, yes indeed, those are lamb meatballs in the picture, how did you ever guess? The meatballs were good, though I have to admit they were not as spectacular as the ones I had at a random Indian restaurant in Bellevue (WA) several years ago. Golden India's fresh naan was super delicious! I love naan. I mean, I love bread/carbs in general, and naan is especially wonderful. 

Over lunch, DF and I discussed if either of us have a favorite "ethnic" food. Is it politically correct to say ethnic food? What I mean is a cuisine specific to a certain country or region. Neither of us could pick. DF said maybe his favorite is American because we have pretty much every type of food here. Fair point! I really like Indian, Middle Eastern like Lebanese, and Ethiopian. If I had to pick one type of food to eat every day, I'd probably go with Caribbean. I never get tired of rice, beans, and plantains! (This was a good thing when I studied abroad in Costa Rica, since I ate rice and beans 2-3 meals a day for the semester.)

I'm sure I could find some food I would enjoy in any culture. One of my favorites is the multitudinous variety of "bread/grain product filled with meat or veggies then fried or steamed" morsels. Think Indian samosas, Argentinian empanadas, Polish pierogis, Japanese gyoza, Ghanaian fufu dumplings, Mexican tamales...ok, I'm getting hungry now :)

One thing that limits my enjoyment of other cuisines, unfortunately, is my sensitive palate. Well, not so much my palate as my nose/mouth combo. (Is that my otorhinolaryngological system?) Big words aside, the issue is that I tend to have sneezing attacks when I eat spicy food. And not just hot-spicy, but also big-flavor-spicy. So yeah, that means after lunch yesterday I went to the restroom and spent 5 minutes coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose. In my opinion, it's worth the overactive sinus reaction to enjoy flavorful food. But are there any medical professionals in the audience (or informed lay people) who can tell me if that's a problem I should be worried about? It's not a new phenomenon; ever since I started eating more adventurously in college, I've been a sneezer when it comes to spices. In fact, I sometimes do myself in when cooking at home by adding too much pepper to my own dishes!