Mystery Meat

When eating in foreign countries, especially China, you have to suppress your natural assumptions about what food should be like.

Imagine this scenario:

You are walking down the street in China. You are hungry. You smell a delicious aroma emanating from a barbeque stand on the side of the road. You walk over and see meat on bamboo skewers that looks tasty. It costs less than $1 USD for three.

How would you react?

Obviously, you buy some. You’re probably wondering what type of meat you’re buying, but hey, you’re in China, so you just go with it. Perhaps you are considering what type of spice is on the meat. You might even be hoping in the back of your mind that this vendor practices a minimum level of food safety.

But nowhere in that sequence of events did you imagine that you were buying three skewers of grilled animal fat.

And that’s what I mean by suppressing your innate assumptions. As an American, it’s just not an option to buy a skewer of fat at home, so I’ll admit it didn’t even occur to me that’s what I might be buying.

And honestly, I was really disappointed, because the seasoning was actually quite delicious, but I just couldn’t choke down whatever it was that I ordered.

I’m going to have to look more closely at my food in the future.