Raising Adventurous Eaters ($25 Certificates for $3 from Restaurant.com)

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.

-George Bernard Shaw

I received a Restaurant.com gift card for the purpose of this review. This post was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own.

I did not grow up an adventurous eater. Pretty much the opposite, really.

People tend to think that curious, especially those who regularly caught the scent of tangy garlic pastes being reduced or pungent pigs’ feet having something being done to them (I’ve no idea what) wafting from my house. Yes, my mother occasionally cooked Vietnamese food, but only for herself; my brother and I grew up on a very limited menu of decidedly American fare. We had burgers and ribs and ham-and-cabbage and spaghetti; corn and peas and potato salad. Every so often we’d have pork eggrolls or a roasted chicken with all the trimmings.

My guess is that my mother did try to introduce some other foods when we were young, and gave up on them when we predictably didn’t love them. Food can be expensive, and we didn’t have the money to waste on meals she didn’t excel at preparing (since we couldn’t afford to eat out ever, she never got to see what a lot of foods were supposed to taste like) and that weren’t going to be eaten.

And so when I got to be an adult I discovered asparagus and brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes; gyros and empanadas and lobster bisque and kangaroo steaks and spicy chicken wings. One of my favorite things is going to a restaurant I’ve never tried, particularly in a town other than my own, and ordering a food I’ve never eaten, and I work really hard to make trying new foods a fun adventure for my kids.

They say it takes ten tries to develop a taste for foods that the palate doesn’t instinctively love (read: full of survival-ensuring fat or sugar), and I want to encourage my kids to get those ten tries in while they are still young: to embrace trying new things, to seek out new worlds, to immerse yourself in the traditions of new places, to give things a chance even when they didn’t work out before, to appreciate cultural history and philosophy and visual appeal even if it’s not your favorite thing you’ve ever eaten.

Food is a metaphor for life, really.

Food feeds more than your belly.

There’s the experience of being together, whether you’re preparing the food together or sitting down for a meal together in a restaurant. We’re making memories here, people. Memories that can be recaptured and savored later in life, evoked by the smells and tastes and textures of a meal.

Of course, making these kinds of memories can be expensive, especially now that I basically have three teenagers. In fact, I was just reading an article about how raising kids who eat healthy/have more sophisticated palates is a luxury of the relatively wealthy, because those parents can afford to “waste” food and money on potentially unsuccessful initial exposures. I don’t agree; I think anyone can eat healthily and adventurously, although it does take some planning.

It’s a question of priorities, budgeting and being on the lookout for great grocery and restaurant deals.

It doesn’t get much better than this one, which ends tonight so do not delay:

$3 SALE FROM RESTAURANT.COM

If you’re not familiar with Restaurant.com, the site offers up deals on more than 23,000 restaurants nationwide. And TODAY TODAY TODAY, Restaurant.com is serving up $25 Certificates for only $3 with Promo Code: SALE. All their other deals are on sale too! For example, you can get your hot little hands on a $10 Certificate for just $1.20.

To find a deal, search Restaurant.com by location, cuisine, price range and more. Use this opportunity to really stretch your culinary wings and try all manner of new things! Or gift someone else with a Certificate, because the gift of a good meal is something everybody loves.

There are worlds waiting to be explored, and they are tasty.

But seriously hurry— this $3 sale is for a limited time. You need to get your butt to Restaurant.com today: this offer ends tonight, Thursday March 31st, at 11:59 pm central time.

Let me know what you get! I think we’re going to try some Jamaican this weekend.