When in Rome… 24 April 2008

Another declamash: “persuade your audience to either love or hate a particular food” – well, at least they might give it a try even if I talk them over!

People are no where more openly racist and discriminating than in their foods.  You are what you eat?  Are you a racist when you eat?  Children carelessly slight a food that may be the beloved of an entire nation; adults who do the same, who “don’t like Chinese”-net, just as they “love Italian”-net because they like pizza are not merely careless, they are culpable.  Being able to communicate with foreign peoples depends on our common experiences, on reaching out to be a part of their culture.  Cultural copiousness, like good guestmanship, depends on eating other people’s food and saying that it is good. 

And sometimes, despite what your fears, it actually IS good.  Like Alice in Wonderland, Take It and Try It, and have an adventure.  Take away those petty discriminations about “eating strange organs” and be rid of your legalistic taboos about “cooked in its own blood.”  Just enjoy the food in front of you and do not offend your host or lose any rash bets that you have made.  That is how I found my appreciation for haggis and blood pudding.  It came to me beautifully served in a fine restaurant that was all about a chic “New Scottish” heritage.  Not only was it very pretty, but the taste is excellent in its own right.  Haggis has its own spice and a texture that you will find nowhere else.  Haggis goes with blood pudding like ham and eggs; there is absolutely nothing to compare to blood pudding, but I assure you, it is an experience in textural-cuisine.  The dish was the very best native food, not counting shandy or scones and clotted cream, that I had in the U.K.  So I exhort you all for your own good to leave behind your narrow discriminations and racist tendencies of all kinds when you go traveling.  When in Scotland, eat as the Scottish and wash it down with spiked cider: and you might even win a few well-placed bets.