by Brittney Lee

So many of us so easily get into ruts.  If you’re like me, I like things to be familiar and comfortable, so it can be a challenge to branch out.  I know for me, one rut I get into is going to the same restaurants and always ordering the same food. I have a friend I meet for a weekly lunch date, and one afternoon, we started talking about how tired we were of going to the same five places over and over again.  So we mapped out a plan for a culinary adventure on our lunch breaks.

My friend and I decided we wanted to try all the hole-in-the-wall restaurants around town. We wanted to experiment with different types of cuisine.  We wanted to try things from the menus that were unusual. We wanted to try all the places our husbands and kids wouldn’t go.

A year or so later, and we have taken a tour around the world without ever leaving Fort Smith.

Trying a new place, or a new cuisine, or a new dish can make me uncomfortable. I like knowing what to expect, and when you walk into a new restaurant and order something you’ve never had before, there is nothing familiar about it. It’s a risk.  Will the restaurant be good?  Will I like what I order?  Will I even be able to pronounce what I order?! So many uncertainties. But I’ll tell you, the risk has usually had a big payoff. And when it flops?  We haven’t lost much.

We have discovered several places and dishes that we love from these weekly risk sessions on our lunch dates.  

Fort Smith has an abundance of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, and we’ve tried many of them.  Instead of ordering something familiar, like fried rice, we’ve branched out.  Some of our favorite items have included a Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich, beef pho noodle soup, and drunken noodles.  

When we ventured downtown to try the new Peruvian restaurant, we sampled a Peruvian pasta and steak dish, and Peruvian stir fry that had some of the best savory flavors I’ve ever tasted.

One of the most interesting lunches came when we tried Indian food.  Not knowing much about this type of food, we sort of ordered blind. We asked the staff to recommend dishes for us, and they hit it out the park!  We loved the butter chicken and the tikka masala so much we forgot to take a picture until we were halfway through our meal!  And don’t even get me started on the strange but delicious dessert we had that was homemade cheese in a milk sauce called ras malai.  

Here’s the fun thing about these adventurous lunches, they have made it easier to branch out and take risks in other areas of my life.  When I regularly do things out of my comfort zone, it makes it easier to go for other risks.  For me, it’s been vital to build these small, regular risk sessions into my life.

What are you regularly doing to take risks?  If you don’t have anything that stretches you out of your comfort zone, try a new restaurant.  Order the dish you can’t pronounce. It will be worth it!

Brittney is on a mission to be better every day. She blogs her journey at Razorback Britt, where she writes about fitness, faith, cooking, travel, fashion, weekend adventures, and more. She is an almost-country girl living on 20 acres with her dogs, husband, and the occasional wandering livestock.

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