世界の珍味にトライ!

By Jamie Lano

　自称「食の冒険家」ジェイミーは、以前友人宅のパーティーで、びっくりするような食べ物に出会いました。それは、鹿の角とペニスです。勇気を出して食べたその味は、「何とも言い難い」味でした。ところが次に振る舞われた牛刺しを口にしたとたん、そのあまりのおいしさに感動。最近では、ボスのおごりの神戸牛の刺身をペロリとたいらげたそうです。

　It's the time of year when the cold seeps into my bones and makes me ache to just go indoors somewhere and put something warm into my stomach. Am I the only one who wants to eat more when the weather gets cold? Maybe this is because it's a natural instinct to want to build up fat to keep yourself from freezing to death in the bitter Tokyo winters?

　In any case, at a friend's dinner party not so long ago, I had the most interesting experience. It was my first time ever trying the Chinese delicacy of dried deer horn and penis! The idea of putting a deer's nether regions into my mouth was a little daunting, to say the least. I've never even heard of food like this!

　The taste was a little bit like biting into your fingernails and then trying to eat them. I wouldn't really say that it was delicious. Or that it was disgusting. In fact, I find that I really just have no words at all.

That culinary experience over, I was suddenly treated to raw beef. Now, I'v e come to be a bit of a sushi connoisseur over the years, but my first time trying it back in a restaurant in Seattle, it was hard to get over 20 years of being told that raw meat will kill you. I nearly threw up all of that expensive fish. So when I was presented with raw beef, my first thought was that I would die if I ate this. I'd like to think that I'm an adventurous eater, and hey, what could be worse than deer penis, right? So I tried it.

　And I fell in love. I LOVE RAW MEAT. I now understand how primitive man must have felt, and I wonder if we were taught that raw meat is bad because our elders want to keep the secret to themselves. A few days ago, my boss treated us to raw Kobe beef at a posh yakiniku restaurant, and I dove into it with relish. My entire world was changed with just one bite.

　Honestly, I love extreme foods (like sweets of course), so it shouldn't come as any surprise that I adore Mexican and Thai food with all my heart. There are so many good Thai restaurants in Tokyo, but I have yet to find a Mexican one that really carries the same kind of amazing burritos, chimichangas and tamales that I survived on in my college years. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'l l try them all!