Associataion Bias - think about these subconcious linkages

 The Full Moon also gave rise to a lot of Mumbo Jumbo about werewolves and centuries of  ridiculous nonsense.

At the onset, this story is about why I hated eating Peking Duck and subsequently changed my association bias and now I love the dish. 

When I was young many years ago, I remember vaguely that I was once playing and fooling around during dinner at the Swimming Club (Harbour Room), my parents had ordered Peking Duck, which was basically roasted duck skin which was wrapped in a flour type pancake and with cucumber, Chinese parsely and then dipped into a sweetish black sauce for the final accompaniment.

So that was in the early '70s, and while my parents were having a nice sit down dinner, I was eating a bit, in between the meals,and playing catching. So when the Peking Duck dish came, I ate and continued playing. All I recall later was that I had some indigestion, and then threw up badly and went home with my parents all upset. I recall I had eating a whole range of condiments that day, such as chilli, soya sauce, honey and mustard all at the same time as a 'dare' and thought nothing of it. Eating that stuff may have caused me to feel unwell and throw up and not the Peking Duck as no one else had any indigestion or vomiting. 

This experience subconciously sat in my mind for the on - going 25  years till I was about 40 and wondered why I hated such a popular and tasty dish. It was the sweet brown sauce which triggered it and I had forgotten the association that when I ate it when I was 12 years old, I had a bad reaction and threw up and thenceforth I avoided eating the dish at all costs.

Why I am bringing this up is because over the years, I had hated eating the dish, Peking duck, and I could not bring myself to dig back into the recesses of my memory as to WHY I hated such a dish which had been and still is a fantastic iconic dish of many a Chinese dinner here and of course in China.

One day, I thought about it, and realised that I had indeed forgotten the association made between Peking Duck sauce and my stomach. So I went against my irrational fear and distaste and tried the dish. 

Voila! It was lovely ! All the bad experiences of vomiting and falling sick were erased. It was a lovely tasteful experience !

So the moral of the story is this, be aware of association bias. Especially irrational ones, for we are all guided by life experiences, and sometimes, bad luck or a combination of being at the wrong place at wrong time can affect you greatly so much so that you are forever scarred by it.