Try Something New!

The other night hubby and I ventured out in the streets of Seattle to find some dinner. One thing we noticed rather quickly was that most of the restaurants near our hotel closed rather early. There was this one place that we passed that was still open named “Ba Bar”. It looked nice and the sign on the front said “Street Food” so we automatically assumed that it would be a restaurant with dishes that we’re accustomed to. Lesson one… never assume! The vibe was cool and the staff was very nice. The hostess handed us the menus once we sat down and that’s when we realized we didn’t know what we had just gotten ourselves into. We weren’t familiar with anything on the menu because it was a Vietnamese restaurant. Neither of us had eaten Vietnamese food before and although we vowed to try new things on this trip we both started thinking about plan B immediately. Unfortunately, our plan B which was the hotel restaurant had just closed so we didn’t have much of a choice if we planned on eating dinner that night.

Our waiter walked us through the menu pointing out some of his favorites and the best dishes for first timers. We took his advice and ordered two small plates to share. We were pleasantly surprised when our food came out! Both dishes were amazing! We had Crispy Imperial Rolls and Sài Gòn Chicken Wings. The chicken wings were some of the best wings I’ve ever had! In fact, they were so good CJ was eating them! Anybody that knows my husband knows that he does not eat chicken on the bone at all! The crispy imperial rolls were to be wrapped up in a piece of lettuce with a mixture of vegetables and then dipped in the sauce that came with it. That combination was absolutely delicious! All of the ingredients were okay eaten by themselves, but when it was all together it was something magical! We also had Mexican Cokes with homemade Pomegranate Grenadine which was great! We couldn’t thank our waiter enough for the awesome suggestions and amazing service.

Thinking about our experience really made me put some things into perspective regarding life in general. Far too often we tend to run away from new things because we’re not familiar with it and we’re scared to try the unknown. Most times we’re forced to try something different just as we were the other night. The funny thing is once you do try something different you realize it’s really not as bad as you thought or even better, you end up loving it! I can only imagine how many times I’ve ran away from the unknown just because I didn’t want to take a risk and I’ve probably missed out on some pretty amazing experiences because of it. It’s crazy how something as simple as making a decision about dinner can make you look at life and your thought process as a whole. I can definitely say that I’ve been way more open to new things just in the few days that we’ve been here in Seattle simply because of that one experience.

Today’s message is YOLO (You Only Live Once)! I know it’s cliché, but it’s so real! We all have one life to live and tomorrow is NOT promised! Try new things! Be open to change and move out of your comfort zone! There’s probably some awesome hidden gems that you’re not exposing yourself to merely because of the unknown! The unknown can be scary, but sometimes it’s worth it and there may even be a lesson in the experience for you.