As requested by Green Bean:
I spent a lovely few days a few weeks back in San Francisco. I got together with old and dear friends and enjoyed being in a world utterly different from my New York world for a while. The only bad part of the trip (except for the return flight - see my post in the TSA idiocy thread in the Pit) came after dinner one night at a Japanese restaurant in Pacifica, a small town south of San Francisco where surfers hang out. Apparently there are great waves there. I wouldn’t know, because not only do I not surf, I don’t even know how to swim, which pretty much rules out even learning how to surf. I went there in the evening to meet some friends and some friends of theirs, all surfers, and the plan was to go to this Japanese place to have dinner. A number of them had eaten there before and all of them thought it was great.
And it was really good. The fish was fresh and of really good quality. I had about a dozen different kinds of sashimi, so I was feeling pretty good (and pretty full). There were crabs, too. Apparently one of the local fishermen had gotten a big haul, and the restaurant had bought a bunch. The crabs were great.
And then came the special after-dinner treat. Apparently this is a big deal in Japan. The now-empty (because you’ve eaten all the meat) crab shell is placed over a flame. The shell begins to heat up, which smells like burning hair, a smell that I’ve always hated. The bits of crab guts left inside the shell begin to cook. They smell too, although not as badly. Then, when the shell is thoroughly singed, it’s filled up with warm sake. I don’t especially like sake, but I don’t think it’s disgusting, so I thought this would be fine. The diners are given the crab shell, now filled with a sort of hot soup of sake and crab guts, and the soup is poured into a glass. Then the diners drink it, very quickly. I observed everyone else doing this, and they appeared to enjoy it, so I followed suit. When in Rome, as they say.
I can’t even begin to tell you how disgusting this was. I can ingest pretty much anything. I’ve always had a cast-iron stomach. A short list of things I’ve eaten and even enjoyed which might be considered disgusting by others would include (but not be limited to) tripe, sweetbreads, blood sausage, blood pudding, monkey meat, various insects (cooked and raw), chitlins, calf brains, iguana, guinea pig (fried, on a stick), durian, and God only knows what else. But the crab drink was vile beyond belief. My stomach was upset for the rest of the night. I really thought I was going to heave right there at the table, and the ride home was even worse. It almost put a damper on the rest of my night, which was my last night in San Francisco and was spent with an old flame who I haven’t seen in a while, but fortunately I managed to recover a little bit.
So there you have it. I have always prided myself on never being grossed out by the thought of eating anything, but now I have found my limits.
So what’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten?
