It’s Like Another Country…
I love the show “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” on the Travel Channel. I try to catch the new episodes every Tuesday. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s basically a guy who goes around the world and eats food that most people wouldn’t touch….even on a dare. Sometimes it’s funny, but sometimes it’s cool to see what different cultures consider to be good eatin’.
Last night he was in Appalachia. He visited West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for three years without visiting my birthplace, I had forgotten that Appalachian etiquette. Out here, it’s like I’m in a totally different country. Maybe it’s because of the size of this metropolitan area or the mish mash of such different cultures, but the mentality out here is so very ego-centric. People out here have a very bad habit of thinking only of themselves and ignoring everybody else around them. To be fair, I haven’t really gotten to know anybody out here really well, but I have been shown in several cases how painfully inconsiderate the people out here can be. I’m talking inconsiderate on levels that I would never even think to be. This is an inconsideration I would never have seen in Appalachia. There’s a warmth missing here that I had taken for granted. There’s an easy way of speaking that doesn’t exist out here that I have started to miss.
I understand that lots of people really love it out here. I also understand that my place of origin must seem terrifying to some. Hey, I don’t blame them. Andrew Zimmern went to some places that I, as a West Virginian would have avoided for fear of spotlighters, moonshiners, and redneck mutants (if they even exist). He ate food that I was terrified to eat, even though it was forcefully shoved down my throat (such as squirrel. My grandmother fried it like chicken and it tasted just awful. I think that is a meat that would be better suited for braising). But as I sat and watched the show last night and listening to the people talk and how they conversed, I realized how my life has been void of that kind of interaction. I guess it is time to come home. This place has never been home to me, no matter how hard I tried to assimilate. I hate the weather, I despise the mentality, and the drivers out here scare the living shit out of me. Home, yes. It’s time.
Aschlie said,
May 6, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
Mary was telling me about that episode today! She said he actually didn’t talk about us like we were back-wood hillbillies. I wish I would have seen it. WV is a great state to grow up and raise your own family. I have never eaten squirrel, now would I ever choose to. But I did see my grandmother eat cow brain and tongue. I was mortified, LOL. But hell…fry up some fried potatoes and ramps with cornbread and beans & I’m there for a party
Throw in sqirrel or cow tongue & I’m vomitting everywhere, LOL.
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merrywifeofcanon said,
May 6, 2009 @ 5:59 pm
Ramps……I smelled them…..decided not to eat them. I don’t think I was wrong. Cow tongue I’ve never tried. I’ve heard that it is the essence of beef, which makes it sound appealing but there’s just something icky about eating a tongue….like putting something’s mouth in my mouth. I dunno.
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