A normal mama who's kids don't eat everything I cook

I, like most of you out there, have a child who doesn't eat everything and it's really frustating.  Ethan is normally an easy-going boy, however as he's gotten older, he rebels when it comes to meal time.  Specifically, dinner time.  It started over a year ago when he would look at something I made and decide without trying it that he didn't like it and therefore wouldn't eat it.  This led to creating a rule that he had to try everything on his plate, if he didn't like something fine.  The important issue is for him to try things before making decisions.  More times than not, he would discover he did like it.  The longer he spent talking/whining/crying about how he didn't like it, the more resolve I had to encourage him to take a bite.  I've taken it as far as letting him go to bed hungry, and not giving him anything else until he tries the food.  And let me share, how fun (dripping with scarcasm) that can be.  As his blood sugars run low, he becomes crankier and crankier.  But then he learned ok, I'll take a bite, and then mama will give me something else.

Last week I upped the ante, I told him if he tried and ate his dinner for 5 nights in a row, then he could have a z kids bar.  Now he loves bars, usually I'll put one in his snack for school or sometimes he'll have one in the mid-afternoon if he's still hungry after finishing his lunch from school.  I was amazed at how well he bought into it.  I also pushed the envelop about what I made for dinner, making things out of his normal comfort zone, only 3 out of the 5 nights.  I made a red curry soup one night, chicken tettrazzini another.  On Saturday night, we stopped at the grocery store to pick out his treat.  He was thrilled.
So I offered him the same deal this week.  This week hasn't gone as well.  Monday night, I prepared chile-rubbed chicken breasts with agave pan sauce, coconut jasmine rice, and salad.  I need to back up and say that less than 30 minutes before dinner, he was starving...so I let him and his sister share a piece of bread I'd made the night before.  As we sat at the table eating, he ate all his grape tomatoes, a bite of rice and a bite of chicken and said he was too full to finish.  I let it go, but told him that tomorrow there would be no snacks before dinner.   Last night, we had pan seared pork chops with dried fruit, quinoa, and salad.  Yesterday he had nothing after lunch so I knew he would be hungry.  Same thing.  A couple of bites and then I'm full.  At story time before tucking him in, we read Scrambled Eggs Super by Dr. Seuss.  He loves this book, which I find fanscinating as he hasn't eaten scrambled eggs since he was 1 year old.  He suggested last night that for breakfast I make scrambled eggs super-dee-dooper-dee-booper-deluxe-a-la-Peter-T-Hooper.  He wanted to change it up a bit, thank goodness, with some salsa and cheddar cheese.  This morning, I started to get out the ingredients to make breakfast polenta, he came out to the kitchen and asked for scrambled eggs.  I asked him if he was sure.  Yes, I want eggs for breakfast.  I put them on a plate and he carried them to the table.  And then he sat, and he sat.  Claire dug right in, she loves eggs.  He never even tried them and said, I'm full.  I lost it.  There is a difference between not being hungry and wasting food.  He was wasting.  I told him that he wouldn't go to school until he ate his eggs, no more just trying them, he'd asked me to make them.  Claire had school today, and she would go, but he would stay home and sit at the table until he ate.  Shockingly, he finally did eat them after we put a bit of cinnamon on them.  And we were 30 minutes late arriving at school. 

Many times over the past year, I have questioned myself why I keep making him try new things.  Should I just give in and make foods that I know he will eat?  Then I think of the bigger picture: childhood obesity, diverse diet, appreciation for food. And I know that it is so important to keep this war going.  It's not the short term that matters, but the long term, knowing that eventually he will come back around to trying new foods.  I am at such a lose as to how to encourage him to try foods that he hasn't eaten for a while or never tried.  How do you encourage your kids to eat new things?