Friday, July 20, 2012

SEE FOOD

You have to be either brave…
Or blind…
To eat certain seafood…
At least for me here in Mexico.
Mind you, I grew up on Long Island
So I’m used to seafood soups and chowders…
But whatever seafood was in it…
Had pieces. Small pieces.
Except for the sometimes mussel or clam shells…
You couldn’t quite tell what was in those soups.
Sort of like sausage…
Ya don’t really know what’s inside…
But it doesn’t matter ‘cause it tastes good.
Well, the other day…
I went into a cute little seafood restaurant...
So many choices!
I decided on sopa de mariscos…
(seafood soup)
When the waiter set the bowl in front of me though…
It thought he brought out an aquarium…
A tomato based aquarium.
There were lots of boiled bodies, and...
Eeeep!
A tail was hanging out!
Iguana? Gecko? Snake?
Oh wait, ha, ha…
It was a tentacle—a long purple tentacle…
Yeah, the locals eat lots of pulpa (octopus).
And then there were two whole crabs in my sopa…
And I love crab—crab legs, that is…
Or at least parts of a crab big enough to dig into.
But these crabs were so small…
I needed tweezers and a toothpick to eat them…
And they still had their black beady eyeballs.
Sorry, I can’t eat any food that stares at me.
The sopa did smell delicioso, however…
So I took a spoonful.
Bueno! Muy bueno!
Then I realized…
I didn’t have to be blind or brave…
To eat this sopa…
I’d handle it just like I do with my fear of heights…
And not look down.
What about you?
How brave are your taste buds?

Always, Em-Musing

15 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I don't eat food that stares at me either. Whole lobster is right out the window.

Sarah said...

The only thing I object to with that kind of dish is the effort. I like to be able to put food in my mouth without long minutes of shelling beforehand.

So--would you order it again?

Karen Baldwin said...

Yeah, definitely I'd order it again. I think they should rename that soup, Skeleton Soup, 'cause of all the crustacean skeletons in there.

Linda Gray said...

Eeuw. I guess that answers your question. Actually, I like almost all foods, but slimy, swimmy things, not so much if they've still got tails, eyeballs, or, gasp, tentacles.

Anonymous said...

I used to work in a seafood restaurant where we servers had to disassemble whole lobsters table-side for diners. Part of the presentation included standing the body between the cracked claws and the tail meat. There were many, many times when my guests would ask me to please take the body away so they couldn't see the poor lobster 'looking' at them. :)

farawayeyes said...

Ya just gotta love the tropics. Eat a lot of things I never thought I would have in the past. If you don't, you're gonna miss out.

Writer Pat Newcombe said...

Not that brave!!! I don't like seafood concoctions at the best of times... Good luck and I hope your taste buds recover soon!

DL Hammons said...

NADA! I'm strictly and meat and potatoes type of dude! :)

Anonymous said...

Brave! LOL! Not sure I could unless I was starving. Glad you enjoyed it.

M Pax said...

I like seafood, so I'd probably be brave about that ... other things maybe not so much.

Intangible Hearts said...

I had a friend who once took me to a Korean restaurant in Westminster, California and the soup looked just like your description. I'm sure yours was better. I was freaked out.
My favorite Mexican seafood related risk was the flattened out shrimp in Mazatlan. Yummy.

Unknown said...

Yes, you are quite brave! I like seafood but the tentacle would of caused a problem for me.

mshatch said...

Ha! Not that brave. Sadly, I am one of those people who won't eat things if they look a certain way or have a certain texture. Blueberries for example are like big fat giant ticks popping in my mouth - nevermind that I actually like the taste of blueberries! So your soup would be an absolute no-go for me.

mcfetoo said...

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Unknown said...

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