Part of what I love about traveling is trying new things and learning about new food. Things that sound gross to me because of my cultural socialization I try to override and try anyway. Maybe some of you heard my story about making my own beef tongue at home. To summarize it, gross not a really super fun experience in touch, smell, sight, and then I couldn't bring myself to taste it.
Yesterday the boys and I went to a place that serves Tanzanian food as well as burgers and fries. I told them they had to order something Tanzanian. I asked the woman which items were most Tanzanian, I ordered what she said was a typical dish of cow tongue. I choose to have Uglai with it, a thick cooked substance you use to eat foods with your hands. I think I wrote about how I learned to make it here as well.
The tongue came and it had some vegetables and a brown thick sauce, a side of cooked greens and they gave me utensils wrapped in a napkin. I did wonder if everyone gets them or I did because I am not local. It had a nice enough flavor but some of the pieces I ate had big fat chunks in it and I wasn't sure if I could discretely pull those out and set the aside. I did sneak a few out and wrapped them in paper. I asked the boys to taste my dish and L did then said 'My bite had something crunchy'. O later told me it looked like tongue but I didn't' think about it and if I had I would have said 'No thank you, tongue!'. There were a few pieces with big vessels in them and that began to disturb me as did the strong taste that started to build in my mouth. Then my fingers ran across the slight sand paper like taste buds that were not trimmed off and I began to recall my time with my cow tongue at home. I became more disturbed. I managed to eat all but 3 pieces of meat. That felt pretty successful.
