Have you ever had a time a food so good it "converted" you?

Menudo. Genuinely, that shit is delicious, I love menudo.

There was a neighborhood cookout, just to get to know each other. One lady and her son brought menudo to the event. Unfortunately, white people have a weird reaction to the execution of the concept 'Eat the entire animal'.

She was upset because she thought it was her fault no one wanted to try any of her hard work. I decided, "Hey, I wasn't sold on raw sushi until I quit being a pussy. Why not?"

Literally? Life changing. Holy shit, it opened up a whole door into how awesome and how creative Mexican cuisine is.

Really really really good Sashimi converted me, and then really not great overpriced shashimi unconverted me.

Actual good beef steak, with fat rendered well, good moisture, good aromatics, good salt, and really good layer char. Basically, reverse sear done really well. That shit is godly.

In that same vein, mushrooms and wine, reduced with garlic and cream as a sauce, on top of said steak. I did not eat mushrooms before that.

Mushy shitty pickles is not the way.

Crispy, fresh pickles of the appropriate size is the way. There is nothing like it.

Cheddar cheese on apple pie. Sounds like an atrocity to the uninitiated, but an ex girlfriend from the Midwest introduced me to it and the flavor combination is undeniably amazing.

BLT. I always hated tomatoes, then I started growing them with my mom. Grew some called 'Bread and Salt' tomatoes. Holy fuck, my brain expanded — best sandwich I've had in recent memory.

Cheese - particularly sharp cheeses - can work so well with sweet deserts. In my part of the world it's tradition to serve Christmas cake - thick, dense, sweet and well-fed - with a slither of Stilton or Wensleydale. So many people turn their nose up at it but it's such an amazing combination.