FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Anyone who has taken at least Latin II knows that the correct exerpt from Caesar’s Commentary is “Omnia Gallia est divisa in tres partes.” So today I am talking, in part, about chickens not France. And more precisely “pedes galli.”
I don’t think of myself as a particularily adventurous eater. Sure, I’ll try ethnic cuisines and eat something hot and spicy occasionally but I usually stay with foods that are pretty mainstream. I have eaten wild boar and I like foie gras and I have mistakenly eaten sweetbreads. (See The Couple and the Unfortunate Choice, a modern fable) And a couple of times in Europe when I’ve tried to eat something local, I’ve had a whole fish on the bone and knussperllen which were whole tiny fried fish.
This brings us to how I managed to raise such an adventurous eater as Sarah. Recently Sarah has been bemoaning the fact that she’s been eating out so much that she has nothing new to post on her site, Braisin’ Hussy. I suggested that instead of only posting recipes that she comment on her eating out experiences.
Now when she was younger she had very definite dos and don’ts when it came to eating. Only mustard on hamburgers, no ketchup. But mostly her choices were very limited. There was a Kraft macaroni and cheese phase. This was followed by spaghetti with butter. And that was followed by Caesar salad. For months on end, wherever we went she would only order her current phase food.Â
A couple of years ago, John, Sarah and I took a trip to Italy. It was a wonderful trip. We all got along so well and saw amazing things. Instead of needing to eat at McDonald’s or Pizza Hut as we had in the past when we traveled with her, Sarah was interested in trying new things. She ate fried little fish with their eyes staring at her, tripe and assino which is donkey! She’d really changed her eating habits.
So I guess it should come as no surprise when she told me that she went out for dim sum and pedes galli or chicken feet. And they come as whole feet, not cut up or anything. She explained that the texture was chewy. What a long way from macaroni and cheese!