At one time or another all of us have been in a situation where we either voluntarily, or are forced because of the expectations of the social situation, try a food or drink that is a ‘challenge to the palate’.

Sagan recalls a family trip we all made to the Dominican Republic and finding in the suppertime buffet a big tray of little whole octopus (or is that octopi?). They appeared to be grey and raw, I assume they were perhaps marinated. Sagan stepped up and tried one and said that it did taste sort of slimy and raw. I trusted her description and did not try them myself.

We have both tried marinated herring which is a staple food sold by street vendors in The Netherlands. The whole oily marinated fish is presented on a small cardboard tray mixed with raw onions. You pick up the fish by the tail and drop the whole thing in your mouth. The Dutch people love it – trying it once was enough for us!

Many years ago I worked for several months with the United Nations in Namibia, Africa. One of my duties was to visit/liaise with ‘Headmen’ or Chiefs who lived with their families in fenced-in ‘kraal’s that enclosed their thatch roofed huts. On one occasion I was invited into the Chief’s home to visit and talk for awhile. While we spoke his wife came into the hut and knelt down over a large open pot on the floor. She used a hollow gourd ladle to fill a wooden cup with a liquid that looked very much like dishwater. She handed me the cup. It turned out the drink was a homemade beer called ‘Tomba’ which as I recall was made from a fermented ground root. It tasted somewhat like flat beer. It reminded me of a homemade brew my mom made a LONG time ago that she called ‘Potato Champagne’. I’ll have to remember to ask her about that the next time I visit her. In any case, even though my body was not accustomed to the local foods in southern Africa I did not get ill from the Tomba. I was happy to be a good guest for the chief and accept his hospitality.

Another unusual experience happened here in Winnipeg and being in the centre of the continent I’d never thought I would have tried this food here. My friend Kevin was a recent immigrant from China and I used to meet with him regularly to give him some informal English Second Language lessons. In appreciation he invited me to his apartment for lunch. He had prepared a few Chinese dishes and one of them looked like long strings of clear spaghetti marinating in a little clear liquid. I tasted them and they were a little rubbery in texture, tasting of vinegar. It obviously was not spaghetti and I thought it was some kind of vegetable. I asked Kevin what it was and he could not come up with the word in English. Finally he picked up a Chinese/English dictionary and flipped through the pages saying over and over again ‘from the sea’, ‘from the sea’. Finally he found the dictionary entry, smiled and pointed to the page. I looked at the word, ‘JELLYFISH’. I can’t imagine where he found fresh jellyfish in central Canada but was flattered that he had gone to the trouble to do so.

So what is the most unusual food you have tried?

– Sagan’s Dad