by D. Kearney Sparano

Created on: September 10, 2009

I've watched No Reservations for a while now. In the course of watching Anthony Bourdain, I have bore witness to him eating many strange and exotic things. In many ways you could say he is my roe model for travel, to be adventurous, inquisitive and daring in terms of experience and cuisine. It was with this mentality that I approached my 1st trip overseas, Florence Italy. While there I wanted to push my culinary boundaries. I had felt for some time that I had gotten too comfortable, lackadaisical in my choices and lethargic in my palate. Italy was going to be the experience in which I said yes to new and exciting things.

I started off small, eating shellfish in pasta and trying goose liver pt; something that I never had in The States. After tasting it (and it was quite good) I had both an aha and duh moment. The aha being how good it was, the duh being how much I thought it tasted like liverwurst. The duh came when I put the connection together. I then moved on to the more interesting animals. Trying wild boar cooked in red wine and served over polenta. On another day I tried rabbit, which I actually ate twice. Once fried the other times in a more delicious sauted dish with herbs and a pan sauce. I remember the second meal a little more vividly not because of the food, but because of the company. I had told one of the other students how I had a pet rabbit when I was younger. He found this utterly shocking when I ordered the rabbit. Trying to coax and persuade me into 1st not ordering and then not eating the dish. My only response being, mmm thumper is tasty.'

Truth be told, the fun in trying new cuisine is the brag factor you get for doing it. Being able to tell a story and get the look of shock on the audience's face, coupled with the exclamation of, You ate what!? it was with that motivation that I ordered, thus far, the most extreme thing I have ever ingested.

I had no intention of eating anything strange that night. I walked into the restaurant, for a second time, perfectly content with ordering something benign. It was only when that waiter said he would translate the menu that my eyebrow popped up and a devilish grin came across my face ala Jack Nicholson. It was the reading of the words deep fried veal's brains and mushrooms that created the boyish glee. Immediately I knew what I was going to order. As you can guess though ordering is one thing, eating is another.

When the plate was put before me, I will not lie, my heart was beating fast. I was nervous, panicky and suddenly rethinking this adventure. However with a table of around 12 people looking at you with the Ok buddy, now what? look, there was no backing down and with that I ate. I wouldn't say that it was the taste of the brains that I found troubling but rather the lack of taste. Also there was no strange texture since the brains seemed to liquefy in my mouth. To get through I made sure to coupe every bite with some mushroom. By the end of the meal I had polished off of the plate. I felt pretty accomplished.

From that point on it was a badge of honor, something that I can always throw out for man credit or shock value. When people want to play a game of one-ups-man-ship it is often the atom bomb to end the game. Also it is a great way to let people know you are not afraid when they go on about something they might think is bad. Oh yeah, can't be any worse then brains?

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