Cookies And Shrimp Eyes...

I'm still having a hard time motivating myself enough to write posts. But I think my reasoning is acceptable. It's just a difficult time and it's difficult to write about things other than death and despair.

However, I must plow on.

So I will write about my dining experience last night, because I really enjoy writing about food. Last night, I sat down to dinner and was served fish that had been baked in a casserole with some leafy greens and a cream sauce. It was wonderful, big fillets of white fish that had been simmering in a delicious white creme sauce and was just covered in some sort of green vegetable. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but it was so warm and comforting and just yummy. Then my host dad served me some pasta with it that was in a lighter sauce with shrimp and other vegetables. I could smell it all up in my room while they were cooking and I couldn't wait to eat it. My meals are always good here but every so often we have something that just knocks my socks off. And I look forward to those days! And last night was, for sure, one of those kinds of meals.

Until I got about halfway through my pasta, turned over a piece of shrimp and was stared straight in the face by a pair of black eyes. My heart must have jumped up out of my chest and ran away and I think I might have stopped breathing for a couple seconds, I was so surprised. But I contained myself and gave no visible reaction. (I'm really good at that) That's when I realized that the other big piece of shrimp that I had been saving still had it's head and it's little legs and there were pieces of shrimp antenna scattered throughout the dish. I guess I hadn't been paying very close attention to what I was eating because this was quite the realization for me. Which is actually odd, because I'm very picky about things like that. (Things like fat or gristle, or... shrimp antenna...) Again, I made no reaction and just was very conscious about what I was putting in my mouth and just left the shrimp on my plate.

After dinner, I took my plate into the kitchen and shared my surprise with Karine, who immediately took this opportunity to broaden my culinary horizons. She chuckled at me and bit and then showed me how to eat the shrimp. Turns out you have to deconstruct it yourself. Which means pulling off the head, pulling out the little legs and peeling off the shell. Which I don't mind doing, but let's face it. I'm American. We buy our shrimp pre-mutilated. So I ate my shrimp then and it was really very delicious. But then I realized that if you deconstruct the shrimp yourself, nobody has cleaned it, so it hasn't been deveined... For those of you who don't know, that "vein" that runs down the back of shrimp that you're supposed to remove? Yah, that's not a vein. That is the digestive tract. So I then realized that I had eaten that and was thoroughly disgusted. Again, I'm picky about stuff like that. But I just tried to shove it out of my mind as I enjoyed my Liègois dessert. It's like pudding, but it's coffee flavored and has whipped cream on it. And it comes in a convenient little cup, like Snack Pack :)

Life is continuing as normal. I go to school, come home, go to dance, run, workout, talk to people, write letters, etc. Today I made cookies, yet again, and I'm sure they'll be gone by tomorrow afternoon. The Belgians love 'em. It makes me feel good about myself.

I hope everyone enjoyed my food blog. I mean, come on, what's more important than food??