""When did you become such an adventurous eater?" my mom often asks me, after I've squealed about some meal involving jamón ibérico or numbing spices. The answer is, I don't know, but I can think of moments throughout my life where food erupted as more than a mere meal: My cousin and his Ivy League rowing team hand-making pumpkin ravioli for me at Thanksgiving. Going to the pre-Amazon Whole Foods and giddily deciding to buy bison bacon for breakfast sandwiches assembled in a dorm kitchen."
"What made me even want to try a raw oyster in 2004, despite everything about an oyster telling me NO, was an entire culture emerging promising me I'd be better for it. Food, I was beginning to understand from TV and magazines and whatever blogs existed then, was important. It could be an expression of culture or creativity or cachet, folk art or surrealism or science, but it was something to pay attention to."
Food often transformed ordinary moments into memorable experiences, from family-made pumpkin ravioli to first tastes of paneer and raw oysters. An emerging food culture in the early 2000s framed adventurous eating as a form of self-improvement and social distinction. Culinary knowledge and discovery became a pursuit of the 'best' across restaurants, pastries, and international dishes, with devotees trading tips on platforms like Yelp and Chowhound. Food became framed as expression of culture, creativity, and cachet, and rejecting foodie practices equated to forgoing a new, influential form of social currency. Adventurous eating was presented as cultural capital that shaped identity and social belonging.
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