Doings

I've found two more foodstuffs that I cannot eat, which tops my list at three items that I will not stomach: calves' liver, and now crawfish heads and coagulated blood. I feel all defensive because I can eat most things; other animals' livers and heart meat are delicious without trying and I discovered that I like balut when I focus on not thinking too much about it. Trying doesn't make these three any more palatable. Like, mayonnaise potato salad is gross, but I can keep tasting it to see what people like about it, however these others are roundly rejected. I've discovered the difference between not preferring something and fiercely disliking it.

There were two brownish red cubes sitting on top of my breakfast noodles the other morning. Soft, smooth, and not quite gelatinous, it held together when I bit through and was....not pleasant. Metallic, yet gamey. There was also a slice of wet cat food along with the blood cubes, so this breakfast was beyond disappointing in many ways. I couldn't bring myself to take a second bite to really try it, but fortune favors the lucky and I was served blood cubes again the following morning and again at a noodle stand today. Still hate it.

The crawfish head was a lunch mistake and was the most repulsive experience I've had in a really long time. Decorum wouldn't let me spit it out so I had to swallow really fast and try not to cry. This one really wins for all-time-worst taste sensation. I would rather eat more blood than ever, EVER do this again. The taste was cloying and still haunts me.

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So I've been working in the fine dining restaurant with the assistant pastry chef, one on one. She wants to improve her english and has determined that I will speak vietnamese within three months so we have mini language lessons throughout the day. We'll point to things and exchange nouns and verbs and she won't let me greet her in english anymore. Her english is spoken with french pronunciation in a vietnamese accent and often it's actually easier for me to understand the vietnamese phrases and words she's teaching me than for her to use english. She was apparently saying "rotate" or "check" to me over and over again and I was completely blank as to what she wanted, but then she said, "kiểm tra" and yeah ok, I remember that one. It's so cool that this is actually working.