I certainly don't spend too much time on base. I live in town and do nearly all my shopping and eating on the economy. If anything, I think all the eating offbase and the experimenting with new places and new foods is why I've had some of these experiences. If I ate at the food court or the O club everyday, I wouldn't end up politely trying to choke down some nato, but I also wouldn't feel like I was getting anything out of being here.
I'm eating well most of the time, but I miss cheap, amazing, easily accessable mexican food. And this thread caught me 1 day post jellyfish (at a 3 hour meal that was filled with all sorts of awkward moments), so I probably overstated it a bit. A bunch of little old Japanese ladies proudly served me this plate of food with these 2 little jellyfish, and then stared expectantly at me, waiting for me to join the clean plate club. It actually wasn't horrible, but the texture was unpleasant.
I also got served a fish as a gift from a sushi chef, which was fine, except for the fact that as I had a bit of his flesh grasped in my chopsticks, I looked down at the rest of the whole fish on the plate and saw him blank at me and then twitch. The thing was still barely alive and was watching me eat a piece of him.