Tastes like chicken

Peur du jour: 15 Janvier 2012- Eating squid what I thought was squid

I don't consider myself to be a picky eater. My mom insists this is because when my sister and I were babies, she would only feed us the most unpopular flavors of the gerber babies collection: les betteraves, les epinards, etc. If we didn't like something, that's all she would give us until we finally caved and did eat it. I had an insane adoration of les choux de Bruxelles when I was little. At the dinner table, my sister and I would fight over who was served more brocoli (you don't need a link for that, do you?). The only thing I really can't eat is le cantaloup (we had a falling out...it's a long and harrowing story if you'd like to ask me about it sometime).

While I have no problem eating anything that uses photosynthesis to grow, I am a little weary of certain meats and sea foods. Ever since that one Christmas at my dad's where we cooked an extravagant seven fish Christmas dinner that was sabotaged by a family member who spread the stomach flu to most of the family (and we had a good twelve people in the house), I have just not been able to eat shell fish or other creepy-crawly sea creatures. My dad tried to trick me into eating calamari once, but I saw right through the deep fried outer shell to the suckered- tentacles and wormy arms (nice try, Dad).

So tonight at dinner when no one could figure out the English translation for what we were eating, I started to get worried. "No, it's not a fish, but it does live in the sea." "It has a beak." "It's not an octopus, but it's like an octopus." I offered the English word "squid?" and received blank stares.

Screwing up my courage, I just served myself. I don't want to be "that girl." That one American that won't eat squid. That one American that thinks she's too good to eat squid. She thinks it's beneath her and that France is beneath her and now we hate America and BAHHH.

Okay, so maybe I tend to imagine worst case scenarios... but I did not want to be in any way rude, and I know that squid isn't THAT weird of a food, it's just something I've scared myself away from. And man, was it good. Or at least the sauce that it was served in was really good. I'd still take the texture of chicken over the texture of squid... but because this plat principal had no arms waving hello to me, I didn't run away screaming.

Lesson of the day: Everything is worth trying once. If you don't like it, you don't like it. Wash it down with some maronsui's and call it a night. But if you do like it, that's one more dish you can think about adding to your recipe book.



PS) Upon searching for the French translation of squid, I'm no longer certain that squid is what I ate tonight. Maybe it's better if I don't know...

PPS) It is squid, here is a picture!