You know that saying….. “Don’t knock
it till you try it.” I have said this many times in my life about a bunch of
different foods. One thing I enjoy eating in the states is ketchup with mac n
cheese. I know, I know, but…… Don’t knock it till you try it! Right? Everybody
has their weird combo of foods that someone down the line said to you, “Don’t
knock it till you try it.” And if your brave enough to try it, sometimes you find out that you like it and sometimes you find out that you were right in thinking it looked gross. But in those situations, the saying holds true. You receive permission in a way after you have tried something to speak negative words towards it.
Well where I live now, that phrase has
brought on a whole new meaning to my life, and honestly a whole new level of
bravery in exploration of foods. I have been lucky because there have been just a few times since I have
been here when I literally didn’t know what I was eating, but to be kind and
gracious to the host….. I ate it with a smile, I might not have finished it,
but I ate until I was no longer hungry.
Tonight was a little different. I knew
exactly what I was eating and it was a little bit harder to eat it with a smile, or
eat until I was not hungry.
Some friends took us to a special restaurant in that it served dog meat. I have had dog meat before, it’s not my favorite, but
it’s not terrible, so at this point I wasn’t completely freaked out. (not excited, but not freaked out) We sat
down and we all were engaged in some fun conversations when the plate came out.
It was a small plate full of tiny pieces of grilled food. I recognized the dog
meat, but there was one other thing on the plate I was not so sure of.
Our host put a piece of the unknown
substance in each of our bowls. In my head I thought, “Don’t ask what this is
because if you know you won’t want to eat it.” But my mouth spoke before I
could tell it to stop. I asked what it was as I picked it up with my
chopsticks. Mel looked at me and said, “I think it’s dog innards.” This is the
point when I lowered my chopsticks and second guessed this whole situation. I
examined it more closely and yes, yes it was dog innards. What particular
innard, you might ask? Well I don’t know, maybe intestine, maybe liver, maybe
stomach, maybe all of the above, who knows. Our host pointed at the “jao” which is basically a form of
Asian hot sauce. I smiled dipped it in the jao and mustered up every form of
food bravery I could manage and ate it. It was chewy, it was different, it was a little spicy, and it was tolerable.
My natural instinct is to avoid these crazy things all together. I wouldn't say that I go out and try to find situations in which I can eat these foods. I only eat them if they are given to me and it would be rude not to eat. But I think I do have a little bit of pride that pushes me to try these new things and be able to hold it down. I'm not gonna lie, that pride helps in situations like these. Maybe its competition with myself to see if I can eat all of these different foods, I don't know, but it sure came in handy when I ate the 3rd or 4th piece. I moved onto the dog meat after it looked like I had enjoyed the innards. Ironically, the meat was a pleasant change. I'm not a texture person. I can handle something that doesn't taste good, what I can't handle is something that feels disgusting in my mouth. I can now say that dog meat AND dog innards are both in the bad texture but tolerable taste category. Both are tolerable when I am given it to eat (and I know now that I can eat it with a smile), but lets make it clear that I will not be ordering a plate of either one of these for myself.... ever.
The girls that I was with have lived here for awhile and are use to being served these different foods, so they were eating them much more quickly then I was able to, so that gave me hope that one day I will have had plenty of experience and built up a sense of food tolerance.
Thank you SE Asia for your (always exciting) food choices. You keep me on my toes and make me check my bravery on occasion.
It's like this culture reminds me of the saying... Don't knock it till you try it!
