The Conservativeness of Addiction

Ever go to a favorite restaurant and order the same thing every single time?

The CC is addicted to the pansoti at this particular restaurant. They are homemade ravioli stuffed with wild-greens (nettle, dandelion, borage, wild chard) and served with a garlicky, lip-smacking walnut sauce.

The rest of the menu is excellent but the CC succumbs to the inevitable every single time because you can't find this elsewhere.

This is a pattern. We stick to the familiar when we should really experiment. Particularly when we know that the quality of the product is likely to be amazing or even excellent.

Excellence breeds conservatism.

Especially when we don't get to the restaurant often or it's in a reasonably far-out place (read this post as to why that would happen.) We keep trying to recreate that first menu that blew our socks off when we really should be adventurous and try something else given that the absolute worst case is likely to be a "good" meal rather than an "amazing" meal.

The only logical explanation is when the restaurant is rather pricey in which case the CC supposes that people are justified in being somewhat conservative. Even then his inner instinct argues for the opposite fully well knowing that he doesn't exactly always follow his own dictum.

The only solution that the CC has come up with is to dictate by fiat that nobody (including himself) will be ordering an old dish, and if they want to they can sit at a different table. When forced to, the denizens of the world find a creative solution. It works via a radical upending of the social structure but it's not always possible.

Anybody have any interesting ideas on how to approach the problem a little more creatively?