Exotic foods.
“Have one”, my host said. “It tastes like biltong.” I have wanted to taste them for some time and the mention of biltong was the perfect encouragement. I happen to love biltong. I had a few opportunities to sample it before but every time I put it off until ‘next time'.The year was 1989 and the venue was a game farm in the north of our country. It was getting dark and there was a bosvark (wild hog) sizzling on a spit braai (giant rotisserie). I was into my second brandy and feeling brave. My two friends who came with me from Cape Town looked at me in anticipation. The bowl in the middle of the table was supposed to be a hors d'oeuvre of some sort .
I took the spoon and scratched in the bowl that my host put on the table. It was the dried variety (I saw when they went in the pot) and it looked delicious; done in a sauce laced with onion, tomato, garlic and chilies. I scooped the smallest one and dumped it on my plate. From there it went into my mouth and I chewed on it.
It was tough enough to be biltong, but that was where the resemblance ended. I chewed and I chewed. At first it tasted good; it was a great sauce… and then the real taste came. It was a musty taste, almost like the odor you get when you dig a hole in the ground.
I chewed and I chewed and I chewed. I did not like it. I wanted to swallow it, but it was still too large. I could not spit it out because I was the one boasting that I eat anything. I went on chewing.
At last I could swallow it. I looked at my host across the table. He was busy with his second and his wife was also chewing one. “How was it? You want another?” he asked.
“Delicious!” I lied. “But no thank you.” At least that was the truth. I’d never want to eat another in my life. In my silence I decided to change my boast to ‘eating almost anything’.
I took the bowl again and fished the two largest worms out there and placed them on the platters of my two friends. A deal is a deal. I have completed my side of the bargain. It was their turn.
Comments (56)
I don't think I'd like the texture, but thanks anyway
Sorry, it was a mistake but I fixed it. I'm having very bad connectivity since yesterday and I was not sure if the comment was posted. It was important to be the first comment, so I posted it again.
I don't know if my modem is packing up ot whether my ISP is choking me to death.
Are you sure? They are absolutely delicious.
Leaving so soon?
Out comes the worm and the the party starts.
Picked up my typos too late.
They taste like fish.
Aw well, it leaves more for me.
Indeed.
A dangerous phrase though. About three or four years ago a blog with that name saw somebody banned from here.
That is a fact. I eat the things I like... which is almost anything.
Even when it looks good, if it does not taste good, I won't eat it. The only reason why I did not spit it out is because there was more at stake. My two friends still had to 'feed'.
This stuff, no thanks.
Good heavens, no!!! I'll never eat them uncooked.
By the time I discovered it was garden snails, I was hooked. I find the snails quite tasteless, but I love that garlic sauce with the home-baked brown bread.
I cannot imagine eating without meat... red meat.
Luckily meat is relatively cheap in South Africa.
got to go now cat have good day
If I could, I would order it without the snails.
It's still worms in a can, though
Though I like the taste of gin with lemonade, I don't touch it. That stuff makes me morbid and before long I long for people I don't even know. The next step is 'dronk verdriet'. Wanna see me sulking, give me gin.
Yes, I wonder if it will make good fish bait. Maybe I must buy a can next time when I'm in the north. Actually, I must ask my sister to get a can. They're heading that way tomorrow.
With all this talk of drink , I nearly feel like one I guess I should at least wait until 11am though
Nah, I'm off to buy a good yard brush now and tackle the patio after a winter of rain, to prepare it for summer (hopefully not of rain!)
I just asked my sister and she promised to look around. I'll try half of them for fish bait. Little does she know what I plan to do with the other half.
So it happens to at least some other people. I thought I was alone in it. I don't know anybody else with the same problem.
I have heard that people in SA eat Crocodile. For God's sake I have never tried it yet..
Also I heard that some black nation - when they prepare a banana meal in a huge bowl - everyone spits into it for some reason..
Some people say it taste like chicken but I find it more like pork. I actually like it.
I have eaten (among others) elephant, hippopotamus (best steak ever), rabbit, tortoise (very much like chicken), pigeons, partridge, porcupine, wild hogs (vlakvark, bosvark, erdvark, etc). every antelope found in this country, and too many others to mention here.
Meat is meat.
However, as a rule, I will not eat predators like lions, leopards, foxes etc.