Just Trust Me

I'm wondering if there's anyone reading this who looks at the food item on the right and immediately says to themselves "that looks delicious."

I'm guessing that most people would look at it in a state of extreme apprehension and ask what it is, while not being quite sure they really want to know.

I'm originally from California and grew up eating a lot of asian cuisine, so I'd consider myself a bit more flexible than other americans. But there's really no getting around our preconcieved notions of what "food" is supposed to be: what it's supposed to look like, smell like, and feel like in our mouths.

Names don't help a lot either. Would you eat "Fried bean curd"? I certainly wouldn't. But I looove fried Tofu.  Shirako, the item pictured to the right, is another one of those tricky names.  "Shirako" is the name of a food, a delicacy in fact. It was delicately described to me by the people trying to get me to eat it as "Male eggs". After three mugs of Kirin Ichiban, that made total sense to me.

The next day however I had to think about it a bit more, and the logical conclusion hit me in the brain and the stomach at the same time....

Fish sperm.

Now, please  don't get me wrong; I didn't just bring that up only to gross you out. Shirako has the distinctive position of being the one Japanese food that I simply can't eat. Even though I've tried it before and I actually liked it (yes I liked it) I simply can't get around the mental barrier of "fish sperm". Not yet. Maybe I would eventually.

Just a short sampling of the things I've eaten in Japan that I never would have considered as food but enjoyed eating: jellyfish, chicken liver, raw egg, manta ray, sea cucumber, raw baby eel, and cow intestine soup.

Contact with another culture's food makes you realize how arbitrary our assignations of "delicious" and "yucky" are.  One thing I can guarantee about almost any Japanese dish is that if you eat it enough times, you'll understand what's so great about it. Get over the runny texture of grated mountain yam (tororo), and enjoy how it tastes with some soy sauce over rice. And why does steak have to be chewy and overdone? Once you get used to small pieces of fatty, medium rare Kobe beef, you'll have trouble going back. And sushi... one peice of really quality toro sashimi should be enough to get you hooked on the velvety, buttery texture and kill your predjudice against raw fish forever.

And please, for your first drink, don't make everyone uncomfortable by ordering a glass of wine or a water. "Toriaezu biiru"- always start with a nice cold mug of beer. Kanpai!