This is why, I believe, one of the most important things you can do when you travel is to eat. Of course, if you're traveling, you have to eat. If you're alive you have to eat. Unless you want to stop being alive, that is.
But we should pay attention to what we eat, why we eat it, where we eat it, who we eat it with, etc. Why? Because it's of the utmost important, especially when we're traveling. Food is one of the best ways to experience a culture. If you traveled to Italy and ended up just eating McDonald's hamburgers the entire time you were there, that would be the epitome of a travesty.
A little anecdote:
About seven or eight years ago I was in Paris with my mother. We were on vacation for a few days after a long work trip to England. As tourists in Paris, we of course did all the typical things. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame. And, of course, we sampled the culinary delights of Paris. As I'm sure you know, France is known for it's amazing food. And nowhere is that more evident than in Paris' Latin Quarter. To this day, I still dream about the food there.
One day, after an exhausting afternoon spent wandering the streets, we ducked into a small cafe. Recuperation was, at that point, an absolute necessity. So we ordered a couple of drinks and reclined into our chairs. As we sat there, sinking into a wonderful bliss, we heard someone approaching. Someone who spoke English.
In through the door walked a family of five white Americans, each one fatter than the next. Two children, a mother, a father, and a grandmother. In a city of slim Europeans, this alone would be worthy of comment. If nothing else, we would laugh at the stereotype. But alas, the stereotype went even deeper than we thought. Apparently, this family had been in Paris for three days and hadn't managed to find a single good thing to eat. Apparently, even McDonald's had let them down. I'm fairly certain that I nearly choked on my drink at this point. Laughter always seems to sneak up on me at the most inopportune moments.
My mum and I were so shocked that we may have actually burst out laughing. To be honest, I don't quite remember. I do remember how pathetic we thought that family was, though. Perhaps we're being elitist, judgmental snobs. Or perhaps the way people interact with food is revealing of both themselves and the culture they're in.
So I have adopted the stance that, when I travel, I am an open book. At least as far as food is concerned. When I was a kid, I was the pickiest eater you can imagine. For a long time, breakfast, lunch and dinner all consisted of one staple: honey sandwiches.
Thankfully, I have since improved my diet. I still have a lot of problems with foods that have disagreeable textures (mostly mushy stuff that looks like it's supposed to be solid, which tends to provoke a reaction of "ew, it's rotten isn't it?"). But I make daily strides and am constantly increasing the number of things that I can not only eat, but also enjoy.
Since coming to Japan, as you might imagine, I have had several encounters with food that I would not normally choose to eat. Every Monday and Friday, for example, I eat lunch with the elementary school kids. Lunch is made by a central "authority" and distributed to all the schools in my town, so everyone eats the same thing (including me). And what Japanese school kids eat is definitely not what I would normally eat. Hell, I don't even know what I'm eating half the time. But eat it I do. And sometimes I even like it.
Sometimes I'm surprised. There are two examples off the top of my head.
First, I have eaten live squid sashimi (cut into strips and eaten raw). That may make no sense, but let me explain. The squid is spread out on a long rectangular dish. It is alive, but its nerves have been deadened. For the most part, it can't actually do anything, but every once in a while a tentacle flops around pathetically. If I were a more empathetic person, I might pity the creature. But no, I eat it. The shell that encases its head is cut up into strips beforehand and served on top of the creature as sashimi. With a pair of chopsticks, you pull the desired strip off, dip it in your soy sauce/wasabi mix, and eat it.
When I first learned about it, I had a hard time deciding whether or not to eat the meal. I may not be the most empathetic person around, but eating something while it is still alive is taking things to a new level. But then I reminded myself, I am here to experience Japan at its best. And if this is what they tell me is a good thing about Japan, I'm sure as hell going to try it. And damn them if they weren't right. That is the best squid sashimi that I have ever eaten. Even better, once you've finished the sashimi they take the rest of the squid away and cook it up for you. Nothing goes to waste and it's quite literally as fresh as it gets.
The second example that comes to mind is more recent. Last weekend I was in Osaka, as I mentioned in my last blog post. On my second night, the family I was staying with took me to a small restaurant that specialized in Okinawan cuisine. Awesome, I thought. I'd never had Okinawan cuisine. We ended up ordering a buffet of food on small dishes that the three of us picked at as we pleased.
And, of course, this buffet of food included sashimi'd pig ear. That's right, raw pig ear, cut up into small strips. It looks just like bacon, but the white streaks weren't fat. They were cartilage. Still, keeping in mind my maxim to try everything, I gleefully (okay, somewhat apprehensively) indulged. And surprise of surprises, it was actually delicious.
It had been sliced extremely thin, as thin as a slip of paper, so the strange texture of it was nearly negligible and I could really appreciate the taste. As well, it had been prepared in a peanut sauce. I love peanut sauce. I am of the opinion that almost anything prepared in peanut sauce will be delicious. So did I like the pig ear? Hell yes I did. And much to the shock of my gracious host, I ended up eating more of the dish than anyone else.
Would I order it again? Maybe not. But that's only because I would want to try something new.
So next time you find yourself in a new place, do yourself a favor and don't eat the same thing as you always eat. Why live in the same old shell all the time when there's so much outside of your shell that's interesting? Even if you don't like it, you'll have gained a unique experience. And what's the point in life if not gaining experiences? It's like pokemon, you know; gotta catch 'em all.
~Jeffles
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