Breakfast Non Grata

The other day, Kara showed up with what looked like a large tree root - knobby and narled, six inches in diameter, and at least a foot long. She explained that it was a Chinese Yam, and this morning it was breakfast.

She started the yam boiling, which is how she prepares most of her food, and sampled a little piece. It was extremely bitter.

She came to me in a panic, because this was her whole breakfast, and it was terrible. Is that how it was supposed to taste? I couldn't answer her.

By the time I took a taste, the root had boiled for a few minutes, and it really wasn't all that bad. She tasted a piece that had been cooked, and gave a great sigh of relief. It now tasted more like a potato.

I tried to look up nutrition information, but most listings just described Chinese Yam as an Exotic Pest Plant. Lovely.

While we're on the subject of exotic foods, I ought to tell you that last night I had the "pleasure" of helping prepare a couple of squab. This is the fancy-pants culinary term for pigeon.

Now, of all my least favorite tasks in this world, picking the meat off of a poultry carcass ranks right up there with talking to telemarketers, and the smaller the bird, the less I like it.

So to try and make the job go easier, I sang a little song and did a little dance. It looked something like this.

In case you are curious, squab tastes (are you ready for this?) kind of like chicken.
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Comments

Kara said…
Just to clarify (two years later) squab does not taste like chicken. It is dark meat and much richer. Better than chicken, to be really honest. Out of all the birds I've eaten, chicken is the most tasteless out of all of them. The list includes chicken, turkey, game hen, duck, guinea hen, squab and quail. Quail are my ultimate favorite. They are succulent dark meat and a bit sweet. And wouldn't you know it? The one I'm most allergic to. Drat!
10/6/09, 8:02 PM
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