Horse sashimi...Not so Oishi

Sadly...one of my weaknesses: Wimpy taste buds and a weak tolerance for consuming things out of the norm. Anyone who knows me well can say that I throw up easily when drinking. Sometimes it's because I've had one too many, which doesn't even amount to much! Most times, it's because I can't stand the taste of it. I guess I have really bad gag reflexes. Before I set foot in JP, I told myself that I'd try at to eat at least 1 thing that would scare me. I'm proud to say that I've accomplished just that...kinda.

This past weekend, Hiromi (Annie's island friend) took us to a restaurant where you'll only find the locals eating at. It was hidden away in the cuts, up some windy roads. The restaurant was very traditional and had one small kitchen opening up to the dining area. Most of the restaurants here are like set up like that. It adds experience and personality to the place, not to mention the reassurance of cleanliness and quality food. It was a small quaint restaurant with one cook and one server. We sat at the bar directly facing the chef. Hiromi chatted with him and did all of the ordering. Next thing you know, horse sashimi was placed in front of me.

I've been curious about raw horse meat, a specialty in Japan. It had a strong odor...deep pink color with lots of marbling. First piece, I just picked it up and put it in my mouth. It was cold and chewy. Was it ever going to break up into smaller pieces? Nope. At that point, I just swallowed it. It was gamy and fatty. The taste lingered in the back of my mouth. I chased it with some hot sake and beer. I gave it another chance. Picked up a 2nd piece and dipped it soy sauce. Again, It didn't taste any better so I chased it with some more sake. I was done. No more raw horse meat. It wasn't awful or anything. It just doesn't sit well with me. And I'm sure my breath was funky. After that the chef brought out delicious plates of fried squid, fish heads, oysters, pig's feet, and fish sashimi.

After dinner, we went back down the windy dark road. Annie and Hiromi's son decided to have a burping contest. Oh my gahh...it sounded like they were gagging. I started gagging! I threw up...and then proceeded to throw up for quite some time after tasting the horse meat come up. Was it the Sake? Was it the horsemeat? I'll never know. I guess I could try the horse sashimi again, w/o the sake to see if my body can take it, but I'm cool. Once is enough.

Although I felt sick by the end of the night and had to skip out on some Karaoke, I'm proud of myself for actually trying something bizarre. Oh! Yesterday, I had black ink squid curry! It was black on rice. It wasn't bad either...I couldn't eat a lot of it because I was paranoid that the squid ink would stick on my teeth and stain it.