False Advertising
On October 27th I went up to the north of Moldova to help celebrate 'xram', which is like a town festival that is condensed into one day. People invite all their friends and family members for a day of eating and drinking and in the evening people usually congregate in the center of villages for a little dance. My friend told me about the day in early September and I was looking forward to it for a while, and I was especially happy when he told me that they would be serving otter meat, figuring it would be something interesting to try and the type of chance that comes alone maybe once in a lifetime.
So after a day spent in his local regional center (where I got into a yelling match with a taxi driver trying to milk twenty lei from us) we took a bus to his village, were picked up by his host-brother, and proceeded to his house to dine on the supposed otter. It was actually a pleasant surprise, like a dark-meat chicken that was softer. It was so good that we ate quite a bit before finally, at one point, a friend of mine asked his host mom just what exactly we were eating. She said something but we weren't sure we understood so we asked her again, and after she repeated her answer again it hit us like a brick: we weren't eating otter. It was nutria, the animal like a glorified rat. As one friend of mine said at the time, “This just went from being the coolest thing we could be eating to the most disgusting thing.” And just like that, we put down our forks and stared at each-other in silence for a few moments.
However, I have to admit that as . . . unappetizing as it was, I'll just have to mark it down as another experience that I likely would never have received had I never come to Moldova. At the very least, we all got a great story to tell.
And speaking of stories to tell, I also got a not-so great one out of it too. On the way back we took a bus that took four hours to travel a distance of 100 miles. We stopped seemingly two minutes to pick up someone from the road. It was brutal.
Notes:
- Only one – my computer is acting up (the power cord won't take a charge), so while I realize this entry is painfully short, my battery life is currently at under an hour and I don't have a lot of time. I promise promise promise to give a full, new report on happenings as soon as I get this problem straightened out. Meanwhile, I hope this problem will simply require me getting a new adapter (a simple solution) or getting a whole new cord (which would be a disaster). Wish me luck.
So after a day spent in his local regional center (where I got into a yelling match with a taxi driver trying to milk twenty lei from us) we took a bus to his village, were picked up by his host-brother, and proceeded to his house to dine on the supposed otter. It was actually a pleasant surprise, like a dark-meat chicken that was softer. It was so good that we ate quite a bit before finally, at one point, a friend of mine asked his host mom just what exactly we were eating. She said something but we weren't sure we understood so we asked her again, and after she repeated her answer again it hit us like a brick: we weren't eating otter. It was nutria, the animal like a glorified rat. As one friend of mine said at the time, “This just went from being the coolest thing we could be eating to the most disgusting thing.” And just like that, we put down our forks and stared at each-other in silence for a few moments.
However, I have to admit that as . . . unappetizing as it was, I'll just have to mark it down as another experience that I likely would never have received had I never come to Moldova. At the very least, we all got a great story to tell.
And speaking of stories to tell, I also got a not-so great one out of it too. On the way back we took a bus that took four hours to travel a distance of 100 miles. We stopped seemingly two minutes to pick up someone from the road. It was brutal.
Notes:
- Only one – my computer is acting up (the power cord won't take a charge), so while I realize this entry is painfully short, my battery life is currently at under an hour and I don't have a lot of time. I promise promise promise to give a full, new report on happenings as soon as I get this problem straightened out. Meanwhile, I hope this problem will simply require me getting a new adapter (a simple solution) or getting a whole new cord (which would be a disaster). Wish me luck.
posted by Andy Buchanan at 12:46 AM
2 Comments:
Andy !
Congratulations on eating rodent meat. I may have done it too, but if I did the chefs never let me in on their secret.
Who did you go visit and in which city ?
And congratulations on being able to get into a shouting match in Russian, to me that's a sure sign of language proficientcy !
Dad
i lol'd on that story. the best thing is you liked it until you knew what it was.
there is a pretty big mexican neighborhood in omaha and i like to take visitors to restaraunts there. get them some lengua taco. it's a great tasting tender meat but people can't get over it's tongue. just another part of the body in my book. my buddy is in s. korea and people eat dog there. he got tricked just like you did on the rat meat. good luck don't die
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