Foreign palate

Nothing against two sausage, egg and chips, in fact I am big-time for it, and look forward to it on my annual trip to the Green and Pleasant Land, or the grey and pleasant land as in it sometimes turns out to be. But a good thing with travel is foreign palate.

Once upon an ex-pat time, I trod carefully with the natives when asked to dine on the cross cultural "away" leg. Especially when invited to eat some thing that had suckers, yes bloody suckers, it should have been in a B movie and not hiding the pattern on my plate. My new found colleagues were keen to see me squrm as bulbous squibbly legs were gently forked up and put on plate for palate dispatch. It was as if this was the initiation ceremont, a sign of courage, whilst they bated breath for my imminent vomiting with hankies ready to either help their victim after his initiation, or to muffle a Latino laugh. But he who laughs first, laughs loudest ...or something like.... my taste buds registered the first squidge of biting and mouth readied itself to Mmm...murgh and satisfy their poised hankies or the nearest receptacle. Swiftly I mumbled, I mouthed 'Mmmm....mmmm, can I have some more?'. They were not pleased.





This is not always the case, some Asian visitors made up for my arrogance in a meeting by helping me diet in a sushi reastaurant that had my empty stomach rumbling whilst my mouth fumbled and feigned 'I am full to capacity, 100%, thanks but no thanks', tapping a stomach to drown the sound of low seismic activity, 'I need to watch the waist-line '. When it was more a case of I need to watch the meat in case it moves again, if I say raw, defribilators were at the ready in case it still pulsed and I was about to shout "Stand Clear". I would like to have shout "Stand Clear" anyway.



So to end this diatribe, on visiting the world's cities, to touch the local culture at its calorie level best and digest the local cuisine, to wander amongst the local restauarants, to delight the tonsils with an 'Ahh' moment, to allow the local secret chicken sauce delicacy to excite the tongue, and then to think may be not, as there seems a certain tang of familiarity, but that's KFCs for you....and they call it globalisation.