About 20 years ago, I started out on my journey to give up meat. I started with giving up pork and beef with the intention of eventually giving up anything meat related. Well….that plan never progressed very far. I just cannot part with delicious sea food, and when I lived in Texas, only eating chicken and turkey was nearly considered vegetarian, anyway. But still…no beef or pork since 1991.
But loving to travel as I do it started to become a problem. Not that you couldn’t find alternatives for meat in foreign countries. It was more that in many places people show their love, traditions, culture and skills through the food they prepare and share. When that food included meat, I found myself rejecting the love, traditions, culture and skills. I felt like I was missing out on something integral to traveling to a foreign country because I’d often have to say ‘no thank you’ to dishes that were prepared especially because I was a guest.
So in 2011, I decided to slowly lift the red meat ban. First step: I tried a bite of my friend’s steak at a fancy restaurant in Los Angeles. Second step: a bite of lamb which I didn’t even really eat back when I would happily pop a double bacon cheese burger in my mouth.
Things continued to progress like this. I never worked up the courage or desire to order a whole burger on my own, but I would at least be able to try meat dishes without worrying about feeling sick or like I was cheating on a self-imposed ban.
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| If this were raw fish, I would have been all right… if only. Photo courtesy of Braised & Confused website |
Well, this exercise in moderation all came to a screeching halt last night when I was put to the test over a table piled high with Armenian dishes. It was time to take off my water wings, get out of the baby pool and dive into the deep end. My very gracious hosts, the family I stayed with on my last trip to Beirut, took me out to a small Armenian restaurant in Lebanon. Its small, but very well regarded. Even Anthony Bourdain made a stop there when he was filming is Beirut episode of No Reservations.
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| My kind hosts and my guides to all sorts of Armenian cuisine |
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| Frogs legs – probably one of the less scary thing I had at Onno |
So tell me – what kind of odd dishes have you tried when visiting a different country? What surprised you as being better than you thought? Anything you wish you’d never even tried in the first place? Let me know in the comments section below.
Ha! And you gave me grief for eating that whole sparrow in Beijing…! Good for you for jumping right in. What an experience in culture and cuisine!
Strangest (and worst) thing I’ve ever eaten has to be dog, also in Beijing. It tastes “like nothing, in the worst possible way”. Yuck. And double yuck, given the obvious morale reasons.
Haha – I definitely thought of the Beijing night market when I popped that bird in my mouth. 🙂 And though I just couldn’t participate in the dog platter, I have used that quote quite a few times as further back up for why I still won’t try it. If you and Mike had said, Damn! That’s delicious, I might have at least thought about it, but if it doesn’t even tast good…nah!
Ahh such fond memories. The dog story is priceless. We were at a tex mex restaurant in Hanoi and the lady behind the bar sent the boys to “fetch” it, the irony completely lost on her. The we dove into the nastiest Scooby snack of all time, boiled and grilled with a rotten shrimp sauce.
Hope all is well!
I remember being mad b/c I was going to protest the whole dog dinner outing, but then you guys had it sneakily delivered to that Mexican restaurant…I didn’t have time to get away. So bad!!!
A very brave eating adventure! I have never tried testicles, but did eat lambs brain…once. That was enough 😉
Yeah – I’m not quite sure how the testicles won out over the brains. (Ha! can’t believe i just typed that!!). Both seemed equally unappetizing.
On my over nighter in Paris I had a delicious dish of calf brain, face and tongue. A bite of tongue, face & greens was a little bit of heaven. The brain was like bland pudding. I would pass that if offered again. I’ll tweet you a picture.
Hold on a minute….did you say FACE??? OK – I don’t even want to think about that. Was that just at a regular restaurant in Paris?
I have never regretted trying any local ingredients or dishes. I have, however often regretted trying food at tourist restaurants!
I’ve had everything from goose intestine to pig throat to kimchi so stinky it made my eyes water. It was all good because it was new.
That’s exactly the kind of attitude I try to have, Lauren. I don’t always succeed, though. 🙂 But totally agree with you on the tourist food often being regrettable. The only bad meal I every had in Italy was the one I had at a touristy pizza shop next to the Colosseum.
Sheep balls?! Hahaha! Hmmm…
Glad you survived the meat fest. It sounds like heaven to me, but then again I’m a member of Carnivores Anonymous. I get cranky without my fix.
Yeah – I’m not sure how I got talked into that one, Tom. Must have been caught up in the moment. Well, my C.A. membership got revoked years ago and I’m no where near getting it back!
What a hilarious read! “Hummus covered with bits of steak” LOL.This is like a written version of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Z.
To me, almost everything sounded good except for the offal and balls. I bet the crispy fried bird head would have tasted great. As an ethnic Chinese, I think everything can be eaten and made edible (though my stomach and heart don’t always agree).
The most awful thing I tried was the duck egg in the Philipines (can’t remember what it’s called). An acquired taste for sure 😉
Espirro! Thanks for stopping by. For me the little bird head was more a mental thing than a taste thing. Kept thinking about its little bird beak and eyes and just couldn’t do it. I’m such a wimp! Oh – I heard about that duck egg…balut…and all I can say is HELL NO! But you’re brave for doing it.