Food Adventures
Food Adventures
WRITING PROMPT - What is the most adventurous thing you’ve ever eaten? Where were you? Why did you try it? Describe the taste, texture, and your experience. Did you like it? Would you eat it again? Why or why not?
BONUS CHALLENGE - How would you change this dish to make it better?
I have never really been an adventurous eater. I have issues with tastes and textures, which made it nearly impossible to try new things. And now that I’m older, I have so many food allergies that every meal becomes and adventure.
However, there were a few times in my life that I took chances and tried new things.
It was the early 1990’s and we were out at a fancy restaurant with a group of friends. My husband decided to order escargot and frogs legs. I figured that the restaurant was only down the street from the hospital if I needed it, so I tried them.
The escargot came in a ramekin with garlic butter. I picked up the tiny fork and a snail. I dug the tiny ball of meat out of the shell and popped it into my mouth. It was rubbery and tasted like garlic butter.
I was okay! So, I thought I’d try the frog legs. They were supposed to taste like chicken. So, I tried it. Yep, tastes like chicken - the dark meat. Nope. I’m not a fan of dark meat and didn’t care for the frog legs. Then came the after taste. It tasted not quite fishy, but had some sort of aftertaste that I described as reptilian. I don’t know what exactly that means. But I did know that I didn’t care for it.
My thoughts on these two dishes are:
The escargot tastes exactly like the sauce it’s in. So, as long as you like the sauce and don’t mind the rubbery texture, they aren’t too bad. I would probably try them again.
If you like dark meat chicken, you will probably like the frog legs. For me, the entire experience was bad because I don’t eat that part of the chicken. To be honest, I have tried them again at a different restaurant and had the same result. I will not be trying them a third time.
My take on this whole situation is that if you don’t try something new (even if it sounds gross), you will never know if you’re missing out on something great.
Think about this, someone somewhere picked up a creature out of the sea and decided it would taste good. It looked weird and was considered a strange thing to eat. I’m sure people made fun of them for eating trash out of the sea. But if they never tried it, the world may never know how good lobster, crab, and so many other foods really are.
