Plug your nose. Count one, two, three. Close your eyes and hope not to embarrass yourself by spitting out the food you just shoved in.
Eating escargot, tarte flambée and terrine of salmon in a sophisticated setting in France is the ultimate challenge for a picky eater. I should know, having not eaten a burrito until the overdue age of 19.
Or soup.
I am not kidding.
Growing up, my mother begged me to eat anything other than chicken fingers and fries. Not once was she successful in convincing me to try mac ‘n’ cheese, bologna or cheeseburgers, and never even close to any fruit or vegetables, even those as simple as bananas and carrots. We clashed on my diet until I moved out for college.
So, naturally, the first thing my parents said when I told them of my plans to study food and travel writing in Germany and France through a USF St. Petersburg study abroad program was, “But what will you eat?” I wondered, too. I had no experience outside fried food and pizza.
I also was worried that by declining food, or asking it to be modified, I would offend the host or chef, or maybe irritate my travel companions. In hopes of finding at least one tasty selection and to not insult the chef, I vowed to eat everything. Starting small, I sampled schnitzel, moved up to bratwurst, potato soup, tarte flambée, salmon tartare, Bleu d'Auvergne, crêpes, terrine of salmon, and ended with escargot. Surprisingly, I liked it all.
The best advice I received from a Parisian was to never ask a chef, waitress or host to alter a meal. If a chef feels that mushrooms should be cooked in chicken broth, then the mushrooms will be cooked in that chicken broth — no substitutions or alterations.
Yeah, I tried it all. But on the last night in France, was I up to the challenge of eating that classic French specialty… escargot? Slimy, chewy and green: three adjectives I would've never wanted to use when describing my food. But if I was on a mission to try everything and truly dive into the cuisine, then I had to eat escargot.
Seeing escargot on the menu in a Parisian restaurant was intimidating in itself. I had no idea whether it (they?) would be served hot or cold, seasoned or sauced, with a fork or a spoon, and so on. I was so overwhelmed with the idea I wouldn't like them that I ordered something else. When the person next to me got escargot, I had no excuse not to try.
When the snails arrived, they weren't crawling across the table — and didn't have eyes to look back at me like I'd imagined. They were covered in garlic and smelled fabulous.
Suddenly, I was less intimidated.
Six escargot came with special tongs to hold the shell and a small fork to poke into the meat. I mastered the tongs and fork. Now on to getting this lastest newest thing to meet my taste buds.
Raising the escargot to my mouth, I saw a small glob of deep green goo approaching. The savory garlic butter dripped from the chewy meat, and I popped a snail into my mouth. Just like that.
I wanted more. Shocked at my accomplishment, I'd eaten escargot in France before ever trying mac ‘n’ cheese in the States.
My fellow travelers, expecting to see an obnoxious reaction, recorded my tasting on video.
“Hmm, it’s really not that bad. Can I have another one?”
No viral video here.
A month later and back home, I regularly cook full meals nightly and enjoy playing with various flavor combinations. A typical dinner might be a salad with carrots, nuts, cucumbers, spinach and olive oil, along with white sticky rice topped with garlic shrimp and a touch of Cajun seasoning.
Who would've thought I'd swap chicken fingers for escargot? Not this picky eater. Not my mother. All it took was a college study abroad program and one simple decision to go for it.
Kate Walker is a mass communications major at USF St. Petersburg.
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2018.