# Se or Si— Do you enjoy variety in your food?



## ChaosEpsilon (Apr 1, 2014)

I've been doing a little research on why some people can eat the same foods day in and day out and not get tired of it, and some people like me get tired of really good food after a while and have to move on to new things. I knew that my ISFJ mom loves eating Subway and will eat it every day if you let her, but I got so goddamned tired of it when we'd eat together. I found this post someone made:



> Humans inadvertently try to balance neophilia and neophobia - fancy names for preferring the new and fearing the new. With regards to food, most humans, and animals, take an overall stance of cautious curiosity. Curiosity as in discovering a new edible food that helps them survive and thrive, and caution as in any new food item may cause harm. Certain individuals will have less curiosity, being content with just eating a few foods, while others will seek new experiences when they can. That's part of the variety in humanity.


I think the wording of "Certain individuals will have less curiosity, being content with just eating a few foods, while others will seek new experiences when they can." It makes it sound a lot like Si and Se.

TLDR, tag whether you have Si or Se, and whether you could only eat a delicious, gourmet meal a few times in a row or if you could eat your grandmother's cornbread every single day of your life and not get tired of it. Also what's your opinion on this concept? I've been trying to find WHAT aspect of a human makes this part of their diet so different from each other.


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## Aridela (Mar 14, 2015)

My third function is Si and, yes, I could eat a delicious meal at nauseam. 

Equally though, I am very adventurous when it comes to food and I would try mostly anything (unless it smells really bad, then I'll pass).


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## JennyJukes (Jun 29, 2012)

Si. No I can't eat the same meal more than a few days in a row but I will admit I do tend to stick to familiar foods and rarely change the ingredients or try something new. My meals tend to consist of whatever needs to be used up first so there's never usually a rhyme or reason to them. I also can't eat too much of one food (I get bored and want to taste something else) so my snacks and meals are usually smaller portions of several things.


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## pwowq (Aug 7, 2016)

'Se' here.
I need and crave variety. Even if I eat "the same meal" my spices used will change, every time.



Aridela said:


> Equally though, I am very adventurous when it comes to food and I would try mostly anything (unless it smells really bad, then I'll pass).


You let smell get in the way of possible deliciousness? Fair enough, more experiences for me!


Prepping food is quite simple. Most meals consists of the same base ingredients, cooked in fairly same order&time. Then you play around with spices, added fat, amounts, water and/or time.


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## Persona Maiden (May 14, 2018)

Si, I'm in the middle, I love to try new types of food and get board of the same after awhile. But I'm also capable of eating the same thing for awhile, to a point anyway. The more I like it, the longer of time I can go eating it.


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## incision (May 23, 2010)

Tert Se. I need a lot of variety since food often bores me.


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## Forest Nymph (Aug 25, 2018)

Aux Se and I love variety in my food. It was easier for me to go vegan than for some because I saw learning new recipes or building vegan replicas of meals I enjoyed as fun and exciting. I feel really triumphant when I can get some stick-in-the-mud ISTJ to admit that my vegan food tastes good when they're the sort of person who has eaten a ham sandwich for lunch every day since they were 11. 

I do have my favorites though, I go through "phases" where I'll eat a certain meal a lot then switch off to something else. I also have my "new traditions" that I've created just since I've been vegan, like I love holiday roasts and I buy them on sale and freeze them in the winter months when I can get them. I have also loved pizza since childhood and see it as a comfort food. 

My ex a while back was one of those people who could eat the same thing all of the time and was afraid to try new foods. I wasn't vegan then but he told me if I went vegan I would be weak and die like River Phoenix. He was an ESFJ, I'm pretty certain.


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## Aridela (Mar 14, 2015)

pwowq said:


> 'Se' here.
> I need and crave variety. Even if I eat "the same meal" my spices used will change, every time.
> 
> 
> ...


Asperger's does things to you.


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## sriracha (Sep 19, 2010)

I *need *variety in my food. When I travel to different places, I need to try the food there. When I lived abroad with an ENTP and an ESFJ, they did not want to eat anywhere else besides McDonalds. Never am I going through that shit again. I have lived with a lot of different people, and I think it has more to do with how the individuals were raised as well as culture. Food is a big part of my life and surprisingly to some people, it's a deal breaker in relationships. If we can't agree on where to eat because he wants to eat at his favorite restaurant all the time or if he can only cook and eat his one favorite meal, then we can't be together.

I cook all my food because I live on a budget and I like to customize my food rather than getting a meal at a restaurant that doesn't have enough of this or that in it. The problem is, my pantry is jam packed. I try to be a minimalist but that's almost impossible if I like to eat everything. Different cuisines call for different spices and ingredients and some things will expire sooner than others so I have to plan accordingly. You can imagine a glimpse of what my pantry looks like: Italian noodles for pasta, seaweed for sushi, soba noodles, flour and sugar for baking, basmati rice, tortilla wraps, and a jar of tahini. 

Here's the thing. I _love _food. But planning to eat something different each day every meal takes a lot of work. Browsing for good recipes online can be fun but time consuming. So much of my brain power goes to simply deciding what to eat. So what I do now is I do one focus area for each time I go grocery shopping. For example, for one week I will eat an Asian noodles and overnight oats for breakfast. The following week I go grocery shopping, I will eat breakfast burritos and casseroles. The week after that I will eat pasta dishes and waffles. You get the idea. I cook in large amounts and so, I will eat the same meals for that week. The meals are not exactly the same because I have different spices and little ingredients here and there that still provide some variety for me. If I am at home and I eat the same meal for a long time, that is most likely because I didn't put in the time to plan my meals for that week.

Sometimes I will get kind of addicted/obsessed to particular dishes. When that happens, I may continue to make that dish for longer than a week period but play with it by adjusting the ingredients. For example, I will use a different brand of dressing. Or I will try mixing different types of cheeses. Or I will use a different type of meat. Simple dishes can always be perfected.

When I go to restaurants, I like to venture out and try new things. I always give something at least one try. If however a meal gets a bad rating by a lot of customers, then it's very likely I won't enjoy it so I don't give it a try. I like authentic well-made food. If I go to a restaurant and get my favorite meal when I haven't tried anything else, it's most likely because I am on a budget and rather play it safe than go home sad.


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## Elwinz (Jan 30, 2018)

Si. Very picky eater. Can it the same for very long time.


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## SilentScream (Mar 31, 2011)

Dominant Se. 90% of the time I prefer novelty seeking in food, but I do have what I call "comfort" foods. I'll echo what pwowq said about changing food with a little bit of spice/flavor/cooking time etc. You can even change the cookware you cook something in and it still tastes different. You can roast a chicken or smoke it and it'll take the same amount of effort and change the taste and texture. You can cook in a normal crockpot and get a really tender and juicy meat, or you can cook it steak style on a cast iron and that adds a whole different dimension of flavoe. (A simple steak on a cast iron with just salt/pepper and butter on top can make the senses sing). 

I also hum when I'm eating something really good .. This is something I recently noticed about myself. 

Once in a while though I will go for something very familiar after I'm tired of variety for the sake of variety and I just want to chill with something that is _guaranteed_ to taste good and the same. For this I stick with some franchise fast foods because you know you're always gonna get the same thing. 

I actually get angry or upset if the comfort food that I've been craving turns out to be poorly cooked or put together and doesn't taste the same. I got kinda mad once I got a double whopper from Burger King and it didn't taste the same as what I'm used to. It's something I eat like once every two-three months when I'm craving it so I don't like it when some stupid burger flipper can't even get a stupid burger right.


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## Zeri (Jan 23, 2018)

Hmmm... I'm ISFJ (dominant Si) and do like to try new foods, but not overly so. If it looks safe to eat and tasty, I'll try it.. If no, no thanks. I"m not an adventurous eater. My husband is ISTP and would try anything, really. Could it be more of a 'P' thing? 'P' in being open to new possibilities?


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## L P (May 30, 2017)

Tert Si.




Zeri said:


> Hmmm... I'm ISFJ (dominant Si) and do like to try new foods, but not overly so. If it looks safe to eat and tasty, I'll try it.. If no, no thanks. I"m not an adventurous eater. My husband is ISTP and would try anything, really. Could it be more of a 'P' thing? 'P' in being open to new possibilities?




I'm with you though I am not an adventurous eater and yea if it looks safe or makes sense, like savory with something savory, but not something outrageous like a brownie on pizza. I do go for more safer foods in general, and if am I craving something and decide to try something new I usually regret it because I am still craving the thing I crave. My ISTP friend use to get enraged about me getting the same food over and over again.

The only time I seek to try new foods is if I already don't have a preference or frame of reference for what it tastes like. Like if someone said hey do you want to go to a Turkish restaurant, I'd be down because I have no idea what that tastes like. But if someone said do you want to try this broccoli with grape jelly on top, I would be way to disgusted to try (and that's was areal request to me).

When cooking I do like to try and make odd combinations but they are all safe combinations to me followed by unwritten rules like sweet and savory together, or salty and savory, but never dairy and pastry and meat together. I don't even like my pastries touching my other food on my plate and it usually creeps me out when other people put the chocolate chip cookies right on top of the spaghetti, and it's gets in the tomato sauce and they eat it, yuck lol. People say it's all going in the same place, but I'm concerned with how it's getting there. Also bad tasting food or food combinations, the flavor stays in my mouth for a long time and I have to wash my mouth out so I' real careful with what I eat because it could ruin an entire meal for me.


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## Handsome Dyke (Oct 4, 2012)

I have Si in the inferior position. I do tend to eat the same things over and over again, but I didn't recognize that I prefer to eat this way until I started getting into certain interests/situations (health/fitness, veganism, body building, moving in with a girlfriend). Details under the spoiler. 


* *




When I first started making my own food, I deliberately tried to have a bit of variety—I'm not sure why; I had some vague idea that eating the same thing again and again was uncool. I even forced myself to eat something new (instead of leftovers) a few times. Having different things each day wasn't onerous at that point because I was buying a lot of pre-cooked meals. 

Becoming a vegan forced me to learn how to cook, and I ended up rotating the meals I knew how to make because buying pre-cooked vegan stuff was expensive and I wasn't much interested in experimenting with new recipes (I also couldn't really afford it). So veganism started me on the path to eating the same things again and again. 

Once I moved in with my ex, I took on the role of cook because I wanted to make sure that vegan food was available (she wasn't a vegan) and to contribute to the household because she worked and I didn't. Rotating the same meals helped keep me organized enough to have food ready when she came home on lunch breaks (which was very important to both of us). 

Years later, I started dieting. Eating the same thing every day makes tracking calories very easy, so I did it (and still do since I'm on another diet). I had to plan my meals carefully for two reasons: to make sure that I was getting sufficient nutrients given the decreased caloric intake and to maximize satiety (both the sensation of fullness and the satisfaction of having eaten something tasty) so that I wouldn't feel so deprived that I abandoned the diet. Once I had designed the Perfect Meals, eating them every day was a no-brainer: they were easy to make, filling, tasty, and a crucial dieting tool. 

I noticed that eating the same thing every day freed up energy I had previously expended on trying to figure out what to cook, both at meal time each day and during grocery shopping trips. I really enjoy the food I eat and I really enjoy having that time back, so eating the same thing every day is something I've more or less stuck with (although I have more variety when I'm not dieting). Over-focusing on food pushes me to overeat, so being able to go into the kitchen and make something without much thought is good for long-term weight maintenance.


 When I make something that I really like, I always want to re-create the experience of tasting it. Eating the same thing every day allows me to do that without overeating. Whenever I look up new recipes, I do it with the intention of adding another meal to my rotation of meals—not just to try something new. Eating something tasty only once or twice would be mildly uncomfortable—I would get the urge to re-experience the food at some point and feel unfulfilled if unable to do so.


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## An Undead Wanderer (Mar 26, 2017)

Depends, I can rarely eat the same thing twice in a row - but if you asked me what I'd want on any occasion, you'll realize that my comfort zone with food is kind of small.

I don't chalk this down to type though.


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## faeries (Aug 3, 2018)

I'm inferior SE. I need variety most of the time (especially with spices) but sometimes I get in phases where I'll eat the exact same thing for a week.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

I have dominant Se. I like variety in my food and get bored with eating the same thing over and over again. I like trying different cuisines, and I love looking up new recipes on line. I'm also a bit picky so I avoid food if they have certain ingredients: horseradish, radish, olives, American "cheese," iceberg lettuce, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, pickle relish. Nothing too spicy for me, either.

When I eat the same thing for several days in a row, it's because I've cooked too much of it and I need to use it up.


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## L P (May 30, 2017)

Mesh Malachi Modeste said:


> I have Si in the inferior position. I do tend to eat the same things over and over again, but I didn't recognize that I prefer to eat this way until I started getting into certain interests/situations (health/fitness, veganism, body building, moving in with a girlfriend). Details under the spoiler.
> 
> 
> * *
> ...


Exactly, when I find something I like, I want it again and again and again with no changes whatsoever because I like the way it is exactly the way it is. Especially if I am craving something I like, I want no deviations or I will not be satisfied the way I want.


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## Kiriae (Oct 2, 2015)

Inferior Si (and Asperger).

I don't mind eating the same food over an over again. When I was young I was known as "the kid that eats 'pierogi ruskie' 3 times a day" because I loved "pierogi ruskie". Even today my diet is pretty repeatable. My breakfast is the same every single day because I don't have the time and mental energy to deal with routine changes in the morning - wake up, do the routine ASAP and go out before you are late! I can't exactly think of new recipes on empty stomach anyway. I experience brain fog then.

My other meals are also pretty limited, although I like experimenting as long as I am not too hungry (in that case I just make something I know because my mind goes blank and I turn into a picky, moody '5 year old' - refusing to try anything new or anything I don't like). 
It isn't about the taste - anything will do, as long as it's edible. But I enjoy the discovery that comes from mixing stuff I never mixed before, searching for new, interesting combinations. Sometimes I discover something good and it ends up in my "I'm too hungry to think" diet. Other times it becomes weird or tasteless - but I know how to make it edible because I have a storebase of taste combinations in my memory and can figure out what spice could override or soften the taste.

I also like to try new food - stuff I never tasted before. I store the tastes in my memory and can recall it if needed. I want to taste all the tastes out there so I know how everything tastes. I even tried fried worms for the experience. Well... and also to see the faces of my friends when I do. LOL 
It tasted like roasted chicken skin but had the texture of popcorn.


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## isaac_a15 (Feb 14, 2018)

Inferior Se. I need to have variety in what I eat. I enjoy trying new foods and finding something new that I love, but I can be picky with what I choose to eat. For example, if there's a dish that heavily incorporates a food that I know that I don't like, I will avoid it.


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