Sorry for the last post on this book, I know it was very close to being a book review. My intention was really to discuss mythos. I haven't been sleeping well lately, so we'll blame it on that and not on laziness.
So this is going to be a rather specific moment to focus on, but while at a party Tarabotti comments about how raw oysters remind her of "nasal excrement." This reminds of my first time eating raw oysters, which I will happily recount here. This might not be the most interesting of posts, but since I'm not getting any feedback...yes, I'm blaming the victim.
The first, and only time, I ate raw oysters was when my fiance and I visited my mother for Thanksgiving last year. This also happens to be close enough to her birthday, which is the 24th and fell on a Wednesday in 2009. My mother happens to love seafood, so we went to a seafood place. Her boyfriend asked if anyone wanted raw oysters, and since my fiance and I had never had them we were game to try them. While I think "nasal excrement" appropriately captures the texture, I liken the taste to "licking the side of a boat." As in the saltwater faring variety.
Perhaps I did not let it "slide down my throat" as you're supposed to. I do have a tendency to chew my food and it's a habit that's awfully hard to break. I even hate eating soups that contain more broth than vegetables, etc. (unless they're of the thick and creamy variety). I think this says something about what I consider food. If you have to chew it, even just a little bit, it's food. Otherwise I'm not really interested. I'm glad I tried raw oysters. I would consider trying them again, but if they somehow became extinct or endangered and I never got to eat them again I wouldn't cry about it too much. Well, except for the fact that we'd killed yet another species.
It's almost funny that I don't like oysters, to be honest. There are so few foods that I dislike so intensely. Most I will tolerate and eat if they are placed in front of me. In order for me to eat oysters again, I think a few things would have to happen. First, I think I would have to be fairly drunk. Second, I think enough time would have to pass that my tastes in food change, or that I would have forgotten the unpleasantness of the taste and feeling of eating an oyster. By the way, I love sushi and even enjoy eating octopus and eel, so it's not entirely the ick factor. I also enjoy mussels (although I've never eaten those raw).
Other than the encounter with the raw oysters, which my mom's boyfriend had to more or less finish by himself, the dinner was delicious. Apparently there were also about six or seven other birthday guests because we were bombarded by the song over and over again that evening. My mother refrained from telling anyone, because honestly I think the waitstaff had been abused enough that evening.
I love food, and have a strong attachment to certain foods, even those that repulse me. I'd be interested to hear stories from other people about foods they met and didn't like, or that have special meaning for them. Please feel free to share in the comment section (now called "book chats").
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