My first journey abroad (to the Philippines, where I met the lovely Mrs. WD) opened my mind to a myriad of new sights, sounds, smells, and yes...tastes. Some were mildly pleasant: rice rice rice, so much frickin' rice.
Some wildly repulsive lunch items to a young WD:
Ox tongue? blech!
Whole octopus in a bowl of broth? GAG!!
But I learned that my little lunch world of PB&J's and caprisun packs was only a small slice of what was out there. What may seem utterly disgusting to me, was actually something others considered totally awesome.
And this phenomenon is not just limited to the visits of other countries. A lunch visit to my next door neighbor's house in Detroit led to similar startling lunch discoveries:
chitlins? Whatya talkin' about?
collared greens? You mean now i gotta worry about MORE vegetables?
Duck a la 'orange? What happened to hamburger a la' ketchup?
So when was the first time you discovered that mac & cheese was not all that existed in the lunch world? Tell us about bizarre lunch items you've come across in your life.
Perhaps even speculate whether the OWFL blog should start a World Lunch Program where we bring our favorite lunch items to the little boys and girls of the world.
And of course, tell us what's on tap for today's fare....
26 comments:
I came across this and had to post it.
Epicurious Burger Guide.
Hope everyone else is sleeping well.
To answer your question WD, I grew up on the opposite side of the spectrum and was completely surprised when I discoverd boxed mac & cheese and fish sticks. They still baffle me.
For lunch I want a burger or a steak.
Whoa, low turnout today. Perhaps all are like me and running between meetings and whatnot.
But i've got time to eat at Eat First! restaurant with mi esposa.
chow babies!
My grandpop would make heaps of fresh calamari when I was youngin'. It's not exactly exotic- exotic, but I remember sitting in the kitchen watching him cut up fresh squid and being appalled that he was planning on feeding me something that oozed black and had tentacles (for a four year old that is exotic). It was sooo good though, best calamari I've ever had.
I'll be ham samming it for lunch today.
Wow - I don't think I had calamari until high school - I would think that would be exotic!
I don't really remember being shocked at weird lunch items - I even lived in Indonesia in K & 1st grade - they've got to have the weird stuff like the Phillipines! I do remember being repulsed at the pigs feet hanging in a charcuterie in France. I think I was mostly taken with the idea that someone's mom would actually give them Twinkies & Ding Dongs instead of granola bars & apples. To me, that was exotic.
Lunch today . . . not sure. I should have a green salad b/c of massive amounts of saturated fat (burrito) for dinner last night followed by massive amounts of alcohol (3 'ritas, 2 beers, 2+ glasses of wine), followed by bagel with cream cheese (only half! saving the rest for mid-afternoon snack). And tonight I'll have the rest of that burrito for dinner & tomorrow we have an office lunch thing & it will be pizza. Groan. And I totally bagged out on the gym - didn't even bring my bag. Hm. Maybe I'll jog after work.
Ugh. Bottom line is, I dunno.
Ah, lunch is going to be pork drunken noodles. Yum. And spicy! And since I was probably still a little drunk when I woke up this morning, it's also apropos.
God, hot servant boy keeps distracting me with his LO (legs open) posing.
I've had pigs feet.
Not alot to them.
the pig's feet were very fatty. the taste was decent, but I honestly think it's more of an old folks thing to literally sit around and "chew the fat".
I wanted a steak or a burger for lunch, I compromised and got a steak & cheese. Eh...
I wasn't witness to this, but apparently my grandpop used pigs feet in his sauce sometimes. I guess you are supposed to brown them first before adding them in the sauce. He didn't one day and I guess the toes(??)on the pigs feet spread open so it looked like deformed hands floating around in it instead. Not that it is much worse than pigs feet I guess...but just imagine opening a pot of sauce and seeing something that looked like a bunch of floating baby hands in it.
I'm sort of regretting getting the pork drunken noodles now . . .
So, to answer your question, miu, re: beer goggles. It turned out to be a case of my ego running (somewhat) amok. He (in the context of a dating conversation - other people, not the two of us) said he didn't want to sleep with anyone, so as not to open himself to charges of adultery. And he slept over & since I don't have another bed, he slept with me (OH MY GOD!!!), literally. And when I was like half asleep (er, passed out), he spooned me. Isn't that a little weird?? So I sort of slapped at his hand & muttered something like "whatyadoin" & he sort of muttered back, but didn't move his hand. But whatever. We've slept together (the literal way) before & nothing ever happened.
So that's my beer goggle story.
And damn, these drunken noodles are good. But I'm waiting for the heat, and there is a lack of it. Especially b/c it was marked with 2 peppers on the menu! I would call this 'mild'.
What the hell?
No!! It's too 70's gay-porny in there!
Ok, I looked. And that's f'ing hysterical.
Garden Village gourmet buffet. I told the co-worker who accompanied me that I was aiming to have the total be $8. I hit $7.90. Not too shabby.
I've told of eating crestas de pollo in Spain before (see photo), but that was really more of a bar snack than lunch. I did not like them one tiny bit.
I was "what the hell"ing the spoon story.
Caught me unawares...
The little mohawk, yes. There was a whole dish full of 'em.
Mmmm-I love the japanese snacks.
No, he's not gay. I'm pretty sure of that (even though I have no gaydar). He's as straight as the day is long! And I wasn't looking for anything - not even a spoon, so that was fine.
I love escargot, but only in the form where they've been extracted from the shell & then put back in. In Spain in December I order snails & it was this enormous plate of them (v. the 6 you usually get at a french restaurant) & they were clearly cooked in their own shells. For one thing, they were way in there & when you pulled them out, they wound their way aaaallllll the way out, so they were still all stuck up in the back there. I had to stop eating them after I found one that still had his little attenae sticking out. That was the most repulsive meal I've had in recent years. Oh, and it wasn't served with that yummy yummy garlic butter sauce that I love at the french restaurants either. Not good all the way around.
Yeah, you gotta be on the lookout in spain. Someone tried to feed me rabbit ears once. I was like, "Eff you, you stinky spaniard."
I'm soooooo tiiiiirrrrred!
Was up staring at a screen until 2:30am last night. Did I mention that I got up yesterday @ 5am? That is right folks! 21.5 hours of work!!! YEAAAAAA!!!!
ok so drunk spooning does happen but typically, in my case, lead to full on sex that night, in the morning, or later on in the relationship.... uhh after she thought she could trust me :)
As for strange food? I have always thought that I'll try anything once. I have done so so far (sometimes to my chagrin .. mostly to my amazement) so I have never understood picky eaters. It sounds like Jo and I were raised by the same women. Therefore, my palette is like my heart ... large, diverse, and perverse.
No no, it wasn't like old people skin at all. It was like warm chicken jello.
Ah, that's too bad. When they're good, they're really really good and when they're bad you want to vomit. Well, if you've ever had really really good garlic bread, that's a good approximation. That's most of my reason for eating escargot, anyways. For the hot garlic butter afterwards. Yummm.
Rabbit ears? I'm no bunnyologist, but it doesn't seem like there would be much meat in there.
My mom likes to tell the story of how I had a couple of friends over to spend the night once (around 4th or 5th grade) & the next day she made grilled cheese for lunch, with plain old cheddar. So apparently both girls (not sisters or anything) (I don't remember this at all) looked at the sandwiches and asked dubiously "Is this american cheese?" & my mom said "Well, it's what american cheese is pretending to be" & they both went "No thank you" & wouldn't eat it. WTF?? Picky eaters (excluding allergy-reasons!) are the worst.
Oooooh, sea urchin is goooooood. But it has to be fresh, otherwise it gets kind of a horsy flavour. That's another thing that when it's good, it's good, and when it's bad, it's awful. The texture does take some getting used to. The first time I had uni (which was also my first time having sushi period) I almost threw up from the texture. I remember describing it as "Jell-o, but you know it's meat". But when it's good, it's buttery & melts in your mouth & is a little sweet. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
I'm afraid of blowfish b/c of the associated deat risks. Have you ever had kangaroo? Not bad, either!
that's death risks, not deat.
No, I've never had horse. When I say horsy, I mean it kind of has this stable-y aftertaste, just right in the back of the throat. Ugh. Ok, it's like shit.
I'm confused - I thought you said you hadn't tried it??
And wow, that is one restaurant I wouldn't be complaining about anything at.
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