Lunch Date

CanCan, 04 August 2008,
Categories: Laos

I’m kind of jealous because my husband was invited to lunch with a group of friends. However I am un-jealous that they are going to a special noodle soup restaurant that is famous for giving you bones to eat ALONG WITH A STRAW TO SUCK OUT THE MARROW *gag*.

My husbands friends are excited about this.

I’m a vegetarian. If you love bone marrow, it might be too late for you to convert.

*update*
My husband wasn’t keen on eating the bones, but he was just along for the fun of it. He did eat some noodle soup but he was asking me before he left how to say “no meatballs”, and he already remembered how to say “no congealed blood cubes” in Lao. The meatballs are kind of gross looking; they are light grey or sometimes skin-colored. I’m not sure if they are made of pork or fish.
Anyway, he said that the bone marrow thing was kind of gruesome. My father likes to eat bones and I guess I’m able to put it out of my mind when I see someone gnawing on a bone that it is actually part of dead animal.
I worked in China several years ago and one of my colleagues told of being invited to dinner at a poor person’s house. Having little money, the poor family used a pressure cooker to cook bones and make them soft, and that is what they had for dinner on this night (maybe it was a special occasion, or maybe they ate it often; I don’t know).
I know I am really blessed that I am “wealthy” enough to be selective about what I eat. I eat for nourishment but I can also eat for pleasure. I don’t have to eat bones or blood; I can afford to be a vegetarian. Over my years of traveling, I have come to realize that having a “cause” (like “save the earth” or “animals are friends, not food”), is a privilege. In developing countries, most people are concerned only with daily survival. They don’t have time to worry about “saving the earth”.

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