For anyone that truly knows me,
knows that I am arguably the most picky eater at the UofA, and arguably,
Fayetteville. I don’t like tomatoes, onions, strawberries, coleslaw,
potato salad, bell peppers, coconut, etc. I don't even like Chipotle! The
list goes on for miles! To give you a better understanding of how picky of an
eater I am, while we were in Vietnam I mostly ate Lays Potato Chips and drank
orange soda. The chips didn't taste quite the same but I didn't
care, it was the most American thing I could find! That was my diet for most of
the trip. My taste buds just couldn’t handle the food. I lost a lot
of weight, so that was a benefit of it. :)
With the once in a lifetime chance
to try all of these cuisines indigenous to Vietnam, what did I do? I stepped
out of my comfort zone and sampled them all. From squid, to snake, to
calamari, to that awful chicken noodle soup (it didn’t taste anything like
Campbell’s, trust me)! Of all the exotic foods I sampled, I would have to
say that sea urchin topped them all! Yes! Sea urchin! We took a weekend
trip to an island called Phu Quoc and tried our hand at Squid Fishing.
For dinner we were served sea urchin and some type of soup. To be quite
honest, it actually didn’t taste that bad! It had this slimy yet sandpaper
texture to it. It tasted much better than the rest of the foods I tried
there, that’s for sure!
I’m proud of myself for venturing
out into uncharted culinary waters. That was a big personal advancement
for myself and I’m thankful that I had the courage to do so! If any of
you #HogsAbroad are in the same boat as me with being a picky eater, the best advice
I can give you is to just embrace the culinary arts. As the famous line
goes, "Life is like a box of chocolates...you never now what you're gonna
get!" :)
Oh, and if you’re wondering, no,
none of us caught a squid, but the captain did catch an octopus.
--
Read more from Cordarius at https://hogsandvietnam.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/the-grand-finale/
Read more from Cordarius at https://hogsandvietnam.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/the-grand-finale/
To find out more about the U of A Community Development in Vietnam program, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/vietnam
