So I out of curiosity try the black pudding being sold in the grocery, knowing full well its congealed blood with grain extenders in a sausage casing. Wow, this shit is fucking delicious! Much better than the blutwurst my mother was fond of and I’ve had before.
My wife is of course disgusted by this, telling me how when she was a girl black pudding vendors prowled the streets selling their disgusting product, but now they are a thing of the past to her nasal relief. And her own husband brings this food back into her world!
Anyway she was right there are no more black pudding vendors Ah but a shop remains, the only one of its kind, Charlie’s Black Pudding. Huzzah they serve piping hot black pudding by the pound!
So I walk in and place an order for a pound of black pudding, the girl behind the counter hesitates and glances to the woman manning the cash register(maybe my age, maybe my race, maybe my accent) who slowly leans forward and asks me in a cautious tone:
I reply yes, I love it in fact.
With that she relaxes and nods to the counter girl to cut off my pound. They are assured they will not be exposing an unexpecting person to the addictive drug that is black pudding. In my return visits the only other customers I have seen have been restaurant reps buying hundred pound lots or elderly people, so their skepticism was natural I suppose.
In my entire life time experience of buying and trying all kinds of foods from people who were sometimes unable to talk about them in english, I had never been discouraged or challenged
It’s delicious in small amounts but can start to make you feel sick if you eat too much. A pound sounds like a lot. 3 or 4 slices is about the max for one sitting I would say. How are you cooking it?
It comes fully cooked from the shop, or at least scalding hot to the touch.
I’ve never felt sick and I can easily put away 1/4 to 1/2 a pound in a sitting, which I try to make a weekly thing at most since it tastes insanely fatty and greasy.
I was at a Japanese restaurant in New York a few weeks ago and ordered the sushi lunch special. The waitress said, “You know that has raw fish in it?” I nodded (since I do love the raw fish sushi). “And sea urchin eggs.” I nodded. I’ve like sushi with sea urchin eggs in the past. She was satisfied and took my order.
Turned out, it wasn’t the usual rolled sushi, but a bowl of rice with raw fish on top and sea urchin eggs mixed it. I didn’t mind (it gave me a chance to practice my chopstick skills), but I could certainly see how an American coming in and expecting a California roll might be put off.
I think it happens pretty frequently that Westerners order something like this in a foreign restaurant, and the waitstaff just assumes you don’t know what you ordered, and further assumes that what you ordered will taste disgusting to the typical Western palate and you don’t really want it. I love kibbeh nayyeh, whose chief ingredient is raw minced beef or lamb, but whenever I order it in a restaurant, the waiter always asks, “You know what that is, right?”
I like black pudding, but a little goes a long way. A small piece with runny egg yolk is delicious.
I remember going to a Korean restaurant where the server kept trying to steer us in the direction of the tabletop grill items. When we asked about other things, like the grilled fish, she said stuff like “That’s for Korean people; you wouldn’t like it.” Fortunately, my friend and I knew what we were doing and we insisted, ultimately enjoying our meals even though we aren’t Korean. Of course, when I’m in a new restaurant, my eye always goes to the menu item that I’ve never tried before, better yet, that I’d never even heard of as a food item before.
We live in northeastern Ohio, home to many Amish people and many cheese makers. We went into a little cheese shop and my husband asked the counter woman, “What’s good?” She showed us a few of their specialties, and we bought some. Being a funny guy, he then asked, “What’s not good?” She made a face and pointed at a certain cheese that seemed to be the equivalent of gotpasswords’ Limburger.
We asked to taste it and she seemed genuinely shocked. She got it out and actually wrapped the knife in paper so it wouldn’t transfer the taste to the knife. It was very strongly flavored, but we thought it would go just fine in a small amount with roast beef on rye, maybe, so we bought a small quantity. She kept looking at us as if she were on Candid Camera. I think she was kind of aggrieved she had to sully her knife.
I went to a Vietnamese restaurant once with some friends from college. One girl wanted to show off how worldly she was, and ordered something off the back page of the menu. The waitress said, ohh, that’s for Vietnamese, you won’t like it, white people never like it. They went back and forth a bit and finally the waitress said something that I will guess was “Stupid white bitch, you want it you got it” and huffed off with our order. When it finally came it appeared to be steamed balls of fat mostly . She took one bite and the look of disgust on her face was explosive. She couldn’t even choke down one bite to save face.
I get that at the Ethiopian place, for that divine raw beef dish I can’t recall the name of at the moment. Honestly, considering the Food Police’s stance on raw beef and what could happen to them if the wrong person got a case of the psychosomatic hurls after finding out it was raw…I can’t blame them.
Last week we went to Chinatown for the first time with the kids and my 6 year old daughter wanted to try the Rice Congee with Beef. I’ve never had it, she’s never had it, but she liked the picture on the menu. The waitress made a face and asked if she was sure. That one, I have no idea why the resistance - Rice Congee with Beef is about perfect for a kid! It’s a loose rice porridge with strips of cooked beef. Nothing “weird”, nothing “spicy”, no strange textures. She loved it! (But was sad that her leftovers didn’t reheat well the next day.) If I were Chinese, Rice Congee would be the perfect baby food, wouldn’t it?
I think that ethnic restaurants will try to be sure you really want a particular offbeat item because of past experiences. An American orders the item and if it’s not to his taste, there’s a good chance he will send it back (or the waitress would have to offer to take it back to be polite). That cuts into margins, since it won’t be paid for. They get in the habit of making sure that the person knows what they’re getting, which cuts down on orders sent back.
I’ve seen someone get the “that’s for Chinese people, you wouldn’t like it” response at a Chinese restaurant. I think it was some kind of fish stew or something.
I’ve been warned in Korean restaurants about kimchi. I just smile, nod my head that I know what I’m ordering, and chow down. Love the stuff.
Every time we try a new Thai place, we have to assure the staff that we can handle heat and that they shouldn’t “white spice” us. I usually have to dare the cook to hurt me to get it hot enough.
I was, and not with anything I’d consider exotic, seeing as this was in NYC.
Went into a bagel shop once and ordered an everything with cream cheese and lox. Guy behind the counter asked me if I was sure I wanted lox and not smoked salmon.
I assured him that yes, I want lox. I had that exact breakfast many a time as a little girl. I’m a Jew from Long Island, bub, you don’t need to protect me from the scary lox.
Ah but a shop remains, the only one of its kind, Charlie’s Black Pudding. Huzzah they serve piping hot black pudding by the pound!