I happened to be close to a suya place(Nigerian food) I’ve enjoyed before, its a small hole in the wall place that is a combo take out and Nigerian DVD shop.
I walk in and a new woman is working the counter, she has a Nigerian accent. I tell her let me get the lamb suya combo and I want moi moi as the side.
She proceeds to ask me if I know what suya and moi moi are, I answer yes I’ve had them before. Then she says I probably wouldn’t like it, I say I do and I’VE HAD IT BEFORE! She proceeds to the kitchen and when she returns with the clam shell container before I pay she calls me to the counter and opens it, saying this is suya and this is moi moi :smack: I know!
She still looks unsure, then starts staring at my son who has an afro and then her face lights up and she says oh your wife must be Nigerian. You know what yea I say you got it, she goes oh yes you’re ordering for her.:smack:
(My wife is black but from the Caribbean)
Seriously WTF? I’ve had this same experience now in two different countries, everything from Japanese to Serbian places and Indian places, even a Brit place when I was buying black pudding. Seriously just cuz a white guy marches in and orders specific items they have to wonder what exactly? Are there a lot of people just walking in and ordering specific dishes and then what? Getting mad it isn’t McDonalds?
I thought this would be at places e.g. with sushi rolls called “Me Love You Long Time roll.” Or all the restaurants using “Thai” as a homophone of “tie.”
All I can remember is a (white guy) waiter mentioning that vindaloo is hot, if you didn’t know. Not really offensive. I can’t say I’ve had servers do this, even getting kitfo (raw beef) at an Ethiopian place. And I can’t think of what would be weird in a Japanese restaurant, the “eek raw fish!” meme is 10 or 20 years old now. Except natto, maybe. Creepy stuff.
I had to look up these foods. I can understand why moi moi might be an acquired taste, but why suya?
I did have a waitress in a Japanese restaurant tell me that the sushi bowl I ordered had raw fish.
But I’m sure they have plenty of clueless Americans come in and order things without knowing what they are and hating it. Then they refuse to pay. Much better to be sure that the customer knows what he’s getting.
I suspect they might have had bad expériences with customers insisting to order and then complaining. I can’t fault them for making very clear that you might not like what you’re ordering.
I had a similar experience once ordering fermented casava in an African restaurant. I finally convinced the waiter to serve me a small bit of it (he really didn’t want to). He was right in the sense that I didn’t like it at all. It basically tasted like vomit to me. But I was curious, and pleased to have tasted it nevertheless.
That was exactly the issue in the Japanese place, which was place in business at least twenty years in Houston that I used to go to with my dad. The server wanted to make sure I understood the fish and eel was not cooked, double triple sure.:smack:
Moi moi is way better tasting than it sounds, I’d advise anyone to try it. Even my toddler will eat it. but a warning for vegetarians I’ve had it from two places and both had small amounts of ground beef mixed in.
In my lifetime of food adventurism I’ve had one time where I said “omg I can’t eat this”.
It was at an authentic Chinese buffet in Houston, none of the item signs on the buffet were in English. I tried one item which appeared to be boiled skinned starfish? Holy crap it tasted like pickled anus, I can’t take more than one bite. When questioning a worker before leaving they said it was in fact pickled pig stomach, blech now that ladies and gentlemen was an acquired taste.
Waitaminute… I have been to dozens of Japanese restaurant. Most if not all served unagi, which is grilled freshwater eel. Anago is raw saltwater eel, but I can remember the last place that actually had it on the menu. Part of the reason it’s cooked is to kill the potential parasites that are normally killed in saline environments.
Thought of another one people might be warned on - uni (sea urchin’s “roe,” but unlike tobiko, it’s not eggs but gonads. Yep.). The best I can describe it is that it tastes like the sea. Not terrible, but no rush to try it again.
Maybe Houston is different, but it’s not like I’m in the most cosmopolitan place. Maybe say in Kansas, most people are befuddled (I know one person from there who’s just starting to like sushi in her late 30s).
This one time, though, I went solo to an Ethiopian restaurant and ordered Kitfo. The waiter did his level best to dissuade me. “It’s raw. Raw meat, you understand? It’s not cooked.” “Not concerned, I eat my steak blue, I am not squeamish. Far from it; find it easier to digest.” “But sir, it is not cooked at all.” “I understand that.” “But it’s not even warmed up.” “Yes, got it.” “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you.” “Please!”
The funny thing is, if he really wanted me to change my mind, he might worried less about it being cured with lemon and spices instead of cooked over heat, and pointed out that it was a dish intended to be shared by a party of three or four people. Because I’d been so insistent I was determined, on principle, to finish it. (And it was delicious.) However, it was still a couple/few pounds of meat at a sitting.
Glad that I’d brought a fat book, I tucked in and didn’t stop until it was all gone, and the injera, too. When I got up from that table, I was vegetarian for the next ten years.
This is not racism. It’s because they’ve had too many experiences of people ordering something without knowing what it is and then fussing when they get it.
That’s also s reason why a lot of ethnic restaurants have “secret” menus.
My favorite sushi place has some items that they don’t put on any menus, like natto. They only serve it to people who ask for it and know what it is. "I serve it to people who like it, not “‘just to try’.”
I’ve gotten this when ordering neck bone and oxtail at hole in the wall places in Memphis. They look amused that white girl me will eat it. Honestly I will eat just about anything that doesn’t involve intestines, anus, or deliberate purification. Heck I have had balut several times and loved it. Adventurous eating is fun and making people puzzled is part of it. I don’t take offense if they question my choices. In fact it amuses me when they marvel at my gastronomic tenacity
