I have been ordering most of my food by pointing since I've been in Shanghai - hence the meat on a stick and the fish soup, and most of the other dishes that I've eaten on my own when there has not been a Chinese speaker with me. However, I have been learning food words with my language exchange partner, and have learned the words for pork, chicken, beef, rice, noodles and a few others. This weekend, I attempted to order beef soup with noodles.
I was at work and so during the morning break one of the assistants at work ordered for me. I told her I wanted niu mien (beef noodles), which implies soup. She looked at me a little strangely, but then I pointed to the soup, at which point she started nodding her head vigorously. I paid her my money (8 RMB, about $1.10) and went back to class.
During lunchtime, there was a large container of soup sitting at my desk. I opened it up and looked inside, noting that it appeared to be beef. When I stirred it with my chopsticks I noticed the beef looked a little strange - kind of furry. At first, I didn't think much of it, but when I tried to eat a piece it was incredibly chewy, kind of like eating pure muscle. I started to avoid it, but continued to eat the noodles and vegetables and peanuts out of the soup. One of the other teachers stopped over and commented that my soup looked good, so I showed him the meat. He started smiling and said, "I think I know what that is."
I had been eating tripe soup.
Tripe is beef stomach. I had never eaten tripe before and had never really intended to eat it here. I attempted to eat one more piece after we labeled it as tripe, but it just didn't go down. I finished the rest of my soup and continued with my day.
Q - What is the strangest thing you've eaten? Did you know what it was before you ate it? Was it good?
A side note- I can't believe it's already December. The weather here is in the 50s, down to the 40s at night with cloudy skies most days. People keep saying that it gets colder, so I'm a little nervous and am thinking about buying a space heater. In our apartment the heating comes from the air conditioning units which are all positioned high on the wall. Great for air conditioning, but since heat rises, not so good for heating. Hopefully it doesn't get too much colder here. Hope (most of) you are enjoying the weather in the Midwest!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Fuzzy? Oh my gosh Greta that sounds so disgusting! Honestly, I have avoided most crazy food while traveling through the fact that I eat very little non veg food while abroad. After that little story I don't feel I've missed much. I actually can't think of too many gross meals....but really I think I judge the food on whether or not I've spent quality time in the bathroom the following night...you know sometimes I think about that and get weary about leaving for Honduras in Jan., but now I'll feel comfort in the fact that at least I won't be eating tripe!
I was at a baby shower for one of Michelle's cousin and everyone in her family brought a lot of food. One of them was pot stickers, which Michelle told me was pork and vegetables.....so I was like, ok, I can eat that (even though it is not kosher). They were the best pot stickers I had ever had....I ate a ton of them.
Well after the baby shower, Michelle told me that she found out that they were actually shrimp (which also isn't kosher)! I was not happy and cursed her and her whole family. Later on Michelle told me she was kidding....but I nearly had a heart attack.
I once knew someone who was about to leave the country and she suggested a bunch of us get some strange Chinese food for brunch. I really don't know what I ate except the 'bola bo' but it was mostly okay.
Tripe? Been there, done that! Knowingly, too. My tripe experiences (yes, plural) are most commonly linked to eating Vietnamese, usually in a big bowl of pho!
As for my strangest foods, it's a tie between two recent tastes: the chicken feet during dim sum in Chicago (you were there), and menudo, a Mexican stew some righands were cooking one night while I was on a job in south Texas. Menudo is a spicy stew made of non-choice "meats," and this batch included tripe, pigs' feet, intestines, and whatnot. I thought they went a little heavy on the cilantro.
Mmm mmm good!
Anything Uncle Fred would cook ALWAYS had me scared to eat. All you really had to do was look inside the frig, and you were almost guaranteed a weak stomack.
I also had tongue! Wasn't bad...
Tina
Post a Comment