Experience is, broadly speaking, able to be considered as a spectrum with both vast breadth, and depth. I believe this holds true not only for external experiences, in this instance cuisine, but also for internal qualia and more compounded experiences.
It is, to my understanding, widely accepted that people are capable of living lives that can be vastly alien to what we might consider ‘consensus reality,’ or everyday life, more loosely. Look towards monks, yogis, and more briefly, psychonauts as examples of living beings with, presumably, internal lives vastly different to our own. Yet in those people we hear accounts of deep personal satisfaction, even euphoria, from no external source. Contentness, at a minimum, doesn’t demand a minimum breadth of experience, or any experience at all, as a prerequisite.
I’d go so far as to argue that the small-mindedness you’ve presumed of this man, may be an acute reflection of your own base assumptions about others.
It pays to be mindful that others lead lives as rich, meaningful, and subjective as your own, even if the set of experiences in question may vary vastly.
I see no good reason to not take this man on his word when he says he truly is satisfied with his life, particularly when he’s at a point where he can reflect back on it – something not afforded to those of us still living what we can only hope to be the bulk of our lives.
Everything I’ve written prior notwithstanding, let me ask: do you actively go out of your way to try every new experience possible to you, costs be damned? If you answer no, then you accept that there’s a radius you choose to set, within which you’re satisfied knowing that the experiences you’ve had thus far, and their costs, are in equilibrium, and that you’re content with not exceeding that boundary. Who are you to say that his ‘smaller’ radius of experience, ignoring the incredible amount of contemplative time afforded to this man, and what that may imply for his internal life experiences, is any less of a valid choice than yours is? Surely you’d then accept you very likely fall within a subset of a larger radius of possible experiences, of which there are people willing to explore past the boundaries you’ve set for yourself.
Ignorance may in fact be bliss, but I wouldn’t be so quick to assume this man is the ignorant party here.
Who knows when his first stroke was? His sister's history of stroke as well could indicate that there is something more going on. He could have had multiple microinfarcts over the years leading to a mild form of vascular dementia with cognitive impairment or something.
He probably isn't holding the secrets of the universe in his noggin, but cut him some slack. I'd have tea with him. Sounds like a chill guy.
You might find that you love it and didn't know you loved it.
You're expecting anyone to take your opinion seriously?
...etc
Not much curiosity when it comes to food, but it sounds like he's interested in nature.
And to say that he is rejecting the other foods is a bit of a stretch, I mean, for example, are you rejecting a career as a sheep farmer? You might love it.
Or maybe you're content with something too