My philosophy... try everything once

I made a pledge to Richard that, whatever food he offered me, I would try anything once (as long as he was willing to eat it too!). So far I have stuck steadfastly to that pledge. Hey, it's not easy to give a convincing "Mmm, yum yum!" when faced with some of the foods on offer.

Go on. Take a closer look...

See what I mean? I'm sure there's something in there pulling tongues at me!

I have no idea what some of the foods are that are available for purchase (and eventual consumption), although I have since found out what other items are and have ended up wishing I'd never asked!

Well, I said I'd try anything once, and so far I've managed to...

So meet Mr Duck. This particular one is Mr Mallard Duck, Esq.

Many a childhood weekend afternoon I spent in Liverpool's Calderstones Park feeding the ducks on the lake. Oh, how they loved that soft, white bread. Oh, how they dived to be first to each soggy scrap. Oh, how they flapped their wings and quacked with joy!

So imagine my feelings when I found out that one of Richard's favourite snacks was duck tongue. Now, maybe I've just had a sheltered upbringing, but I never knew that people ate duck tongues. It must be a cultural thing. Anyway, I tried one (I was so proud of myself!) and as I chewed I had a picture in my head of a poor duck somewhere in Taiwan running round a farm yard going "_______" instead of "Quack". In fact, after looking at the rest of the tongues in the bag the mental picture turned into a whole flock of silent ducks all crying "_______" as they run round the yard... Poor things.

A (spicy) duck tongue ready to eat! "_______"

But wait, there's more. Not only do people in Taiwan eat the duck's tongue they also eat the rest of the head. There's a stall near where I live which has them on display, and every time we passed it Richard would ask me if I wanted a duck head and would remind me that I said I'd try anything once. My answer was always something along the lines of "Maybe some other time... in the future..."

So there we were the other week sitting at our favourite duck hotpot place when, on investigating the contents of the pot, I discovered that one of the duck parts was a head. And all of a sudden I was faced with an inevitability. Unlike the duck heads on the local stall I couldn't just walk past this one: it refused to be ignored. The future in 'maybe some other time in the future' had become 'the present' - right now. So I reached in and fished out the duck head and ate it. Well, ate some of it anyway. Yum, yum! (The inside, so I'm told, is the best bit. "There's a best bit?" I asked?) And as I chewed, the picture in my head of tongue-less ducks morphed into a picture of tongue-less, head-less ducks all running round the farm yard, all crying "_______" but this time all bumping into each other because they can't see where they're going...

So when I return to the UK I plan to go on a pilgrimage to Calderstones Park and there I shall feed the ducks on the lake a whole loaf of bread, soft and white. And as I stand there throwing pieces of bread into the water I'll shed a secret, silent tear for those ducks elsewhere in the world who are not so fortunate...

(adapted from the Graham's "Food" page at http://homepages.enterprise.net/zaba/taiwan )