March 2009. I’m sitting in a small pub in Edinburgh and have just ordered a portion of haggis bites. The girl at the front desk of my hostel said this would be a good way to tell if I liked haggis or not without ordering a complete plate of the stuff. It’s supposed to be an appetizer: haggis breaded in little balls not too different in size from jalapeno poppers and fried. Although I’m nervous about this culinary excursion, I decide it’s something I need to do, for bragging rights if nothing else.
After about a half hour one of the waiters brings out my food, and that’s when I realized they got my order wrong. Instead of haggis bites, they gave me a full portion of haggis on a plate with a bowl full of sauces that I have no clue what they’re present for. Now, it’s at this point I could have easily just pointed out the error of the serving staff and waited for the haggis bites. I decided to be a bit adventurous, though.
For those who don’t know what haggis is, think sheep’s stomach minced with oatmeal, spices, and salt. It’s not something that most people born and bred in southern Indiana would be quick to order. I had read so much about this traditional Scottish dish, however, that it seemed as if my first trip to Scotland wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t at least try the stuff. Sure, I may end up, in the end, hating it cursing myself for spending ₤5 on the stuff. The point was that I moved outside my comfort zone for just a minute to try something completely foreign to me. And isn’t that what life is all about: new experiences? We’re only guaranteed one shot at this life. We have to make it a good one.
When I tell this story to people, they generally look at me disgusted and ask how I could eat something like sheep’s stomach. My question is how could you not? Are you so complacent with McDonald’s culture that any form of meat other than a Big Mac is completely disgusting looking to you? You can go to a McDonald’s practically anywhere in the world and order food that most people would consider traditional American fast food cuisine. How often, though, do you get to visit Scotland and sample haggis with warm Scottish ale? And when is the next time I’ll have that opportunity, too?
As Andy Dufrense says in The Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” If you aren’t experiencing new things, if you just coast day to day doing all the same things over and over again with no thought of anything new, you might as well be dead to life. I mean it. You may never have eaten Indian food. So go to the local Indian restaurant and order curry. You may never have eaten African food. So go to an Ethiopian restaurant and order goat. Beyond food, you may never have tried rock climbing before. Find a local rock climbing wall and try it. You may end up hating it. On the other hand, you may end up with a new consuming passion.
If you’ve never seen Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations on the Travel Channel, Bourdain, a bistro chef from New York, travels the world eating every country’s native foods (however exotic those foods may be) and experiencing the culture first hand. Bourdain knows that, to experience and understand a culture, you have to eat their foods, no matter how exotic. At a recent appearance in Louisville, he called Americans “culinary cowards” because of our unwillingness to try new foods. Is he right? Perhaps. For my part, though, I’m determined to go beyond the stereotype and be a culinary adventurer. I’d go further than Bourdain, though: I’d say we’re cowards for new experiences. We look at people living life and we laugh or even ridicule them because we’re too scared to do the same. I say seize the day! Go skydiving! Go bungee jumping! Tell the guy/girl you have a crush on that you like them! Eat haggis!
So did I like haggis? It tasted pretty plain to me. That’s not to say I wouldn’t try it again. After all, maybe I just ordered it at the wrong pub. Even though I didn’t find a dish that calls to me, it was the adventure that counts. I didn’t just wimp out and order fish and chips or, worse yet, go to the nearest McDonald’s. I tried something completely foreign to me. I stepped outside my comfort zone. And I’m richer for the experience.
