interview: take five

Today is my last interview question from Andy! Thanks again for interviewing me, you chose some great questions!

The Rules

1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, "Interview
me." (And your e-mail address, please.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone
else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them
five questions.


The Questions:

5. Looking at the list of the foods you've actually tried, I was surprised you've eaten pretty much everything! Where have you eaten so many... exotic things?

Andy is referring THE food list that has been making its rounds in the blog world, 100 things that apparently all omnivores should try at least once.

Well, considering one of my personal heroes (and biggest celebrity crush) is Anthony Bourdain, I have this "try anything once" attitude regarding food. Okay, not quite anything, but even good ol' Tony can't stomach all the stuff they throw at him on his show, so I can't be expected to either since I don't even get paid for my culinary adventures.

I tried a lot of the more exotic things on the list during my 9 month stint in Europe in 2006. I was mostly in Pau (south western France) and Paris, but I traveled extensively through Italy, Ireland, London, Greece, Spain, Poland, and Germany and tried a lot of things during my trip. I didn't have any food restrictions back then, so it was easier to cross things like "head cheese" off the list. To be truthful, I ordered that on accident and didn't find out what the heck I was eating until I was already half-way finished with it. I lost my appetite once my meal's identity was revealed, though.

Other exotic things I've eaten include: crocodile (in my hometown in California, it was very mild tasting), foie gras (I lived in France, this is a requirement. Plus, I went to college in the same town as the biggest foie gras company West of the Mississippi), eel (tried it my first week in China, it was slimy and extremely difficult to pick up using chopsticks but the texture was nice and the sauce was yummy), and hare and horse, both of which were considered delicacies in Pau and were featured on most restaurant menus. Oh, and frogs legs.

Now, the only things I won't try for the time being are meat-related products. I'm sort of interested in drinking snake blood in Thailand, though. I hear people do that there.