I experienced three of my four stages of dining out in a recent week. My wife and I ate at a Chinese restaurant happily listening to servers and customers chat in a language we didn’t know. We had a nice steak dinner on my son’s birthday. And I visited a neighborhood diner where I order the same thing every time.
My unsophisticated spectrum of dining out has four major buckets: super familiar regular stops, slightly unfamiliar menu and/or atmosphere, special occasion push-my-comfort-zone spots, and completely unfamiliar or challenging places. Each has its joys and benefits; there’s no downside to any of them, unless you get a bad meal or poor service.
For argument’s sake, let’s assume you have a fantastic experience every time you visit these four kinds of restaurants. What’s the right mix of categories? Which is your favorite? Why am I such a picky eater?
While there are plenty of restaurants, bars, and food stalls that nail each category, we all know modern life is lived mostly in the gray areas. Can a regular stop also be slightly unfamiliar if, say, I order something at Skyline I’ve never tried? Yes. Can a special occasion place be challenging if I’m embarrassed to ask the server to explain an unknown ingredient? Sure. Not every restaurant fits neatly in one of the four buckets. Most reside in the overlaps.
The places highlighted in our “Asian Eats!” section fill all of my categories as well as the crevices in between. They remind me how we each experience the same restaurant in different ways. When the magazine’s office moved near Findlay Market, I’d never tried Pho Lang Thang; it quickly became a regular stop. I don’t know much about sushi and so I’m not a big fan; you might eat sushi regularly. But just because an experience is unfamiliar and challenging, I know it’s still worth exploring.
Exploring is the right word, I think, when discussing Cincinnati’s culinary scene and this month’s Asian food highlights. If you eat out 75 percent of the time at regular spots, shift some of those visits to slightly unfamiliar or special occasion restaurants. Open your mind, then open your mouth.
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