Another victory for my chopstick skills

I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks now, and I am please to announce that I’m coming on in leaps and bounds when it comes to chopstick control!

One of the guys that I work with has taken me under his wing when it comes to scary food introductions – he’s not going to rest until he’s forced a “pig organ soup” down my throat (and yes, that really is as vile as it sounds – it’s lumpy, with entire chunks of organ in it that you’re supposed to chew on and enjoy) and has taught me the intricate process of eating an entire chicken foot properly – apparently it’s pretty chewy, and all that’s supposed to come out of your mouth at the end of the ordeal is a very small selection of bones. I am really not looking forward to that particular lesson.  

To be honest, I think it’s going to take me a good few years (or a good many gins) to build up the bravery for either of those options – I had a chicken foot in my soup on the very first meal I shared with my work team and they took pity on me then – I really hope that level of understanding will last for a bit longer!

On a positive, whilst I do my best to learn the scary food ropes, I get to benefit from the gentle introduction to the fear, which means a great many very tasty dishes are coming my way, and I am very much enjoying the education!

Today was bah kut teh day, which seems to be a pretty perfect Friday lunch treat.  We had to head out of the office ready to eat at noon because the place we wanted to try gets so busy that you can end up queuing for at least an hour just to get a table.

Bah kut teh is basically a pork rib soup, served in a very tasty herb and garlic broth, with rich, salted veggies and weird dumpling things on the side. The flavour was great, but working out how to eat entire, fairly sizeable pork ribs with chopsticks when you’re not supposed to pick them up with your fingers is quite a challenge. I got there eventually, but it was definitely another close call on the mass-spillage drama.

Still, I made it, and now I get to look forward to the next treat. I really hope he’s not in a rush to reach the organ soup…that’s the stuff of nightmares right there!