silverbear said:
OK, now you done went and reminded me of a funny story about my late Mom...
Every Mother's Day after my Dad passed away, it was our tradition for me to take Mom to the Ritz Carlton in Tyson's Corner (suburban DC) for their Mother's Day Brunch... it was outrageously expensive, but there was an abundance of shellfish, so I really looked forward to it...
This one time, we were goin' through the buffet, and Mom spotted a green goop in a bowl... "oh good, guacamole", she said, and spooned herself up a big dollop of it...
Well, friends, it wasn't guacamole, it was WASABI... I knew that, and I was gonna tell her about it (honest), but she filled her plate before I did, and when I got back to the table, she had just dipped a cracker into that mess and took a big ol' bite of it...
Her eyes popped so far out of her head, I kidded her that at least now, she knew what the insides of her nostrils looked like... poor girl, she 'bout to wiped out a pitcher of ice water in those next few minutes... I sampled just a bit of it, and I can tell you it was a particularly hot batch of that stuff...
:laugh1:
I have a story about wasabi and the people who love it.
My first time to experience wasabi and sushi was in Japan with a group of exchange students for the summer. Now keep in mind that I was with a group of travellers from the Marianas Islands, and the the locals there were
very proud of their love for hot and spicy food. Those hot Asian boony peppers that I think I've already seen mentioned twice in this thread were a local favorite in the Marianas Islands. Tobasco was used as liberally there as it is in Louisiana. The locals loved to 'fork' with haolies who came from the States and couldn't handle hot food. I was the only one in the group who looked about as Euro-Anglo, and as bland-tasting food lover, as you can be.
Anyways, I'm in Japan with some of those same folks who take pride in their hot and spicy tolerance, and the local Japanese Rotary Club decides to take everyone out to a local sushi bar. This was the first time I had ever really tried the stuff. I'm not sure if it was because it was authentic dining in Japan, or because the hosts wanted to 'fork' with the foreigners (oh the irony), but that was probably the most wasabi I've ever had on my sushi. All the folks around me who supposedly had high tolerance for spicy food were dropping like flies. They were begging for water, waving their hands to blow air in their mouth as if this would make a difference... they were desperate! Meanwhile, me the Irish haolie/gaijin was sittin' at the table just having a good ol' time!
I couldn't get enough of that stuff, and my hosts thought it was terrific how I loved it, and we all finished a ton of sushi and some saki to throw it down, while all the Marianas Island locals who supposedly had a high tolerance for this stuff were sitting it out.
By the way, the moral of the story is if you ever want to gain respect quickly in foreign lands, eat their local food and love it!
Seriously, it seems to be a universal test everywhere I've traveled, from nose dives in Mexico, to sushi bars in Japan, if you love their food, especially when it's one of those "tests" where they see what the gringo can handle, they instantly respect you.
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