A Cure for the Blues

I decided to have a big breakfast today, since I would be missing lunch due to the helicopter flight schedule out to the rig. I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and filled my plate with my normal selections; fruit, egg omelet, bacon, and boiled rice with dried fish. At these large Asian breakfast buffets they cover a large range of food, in an attempt to satisfy the variety of people from around the world that visit the hotel. Typically they have American, Chinese and Japanese foods as a minimum.

I noticed that a sadness had crept up on me over the past couple days. This morning I was really feeling the weight of sadness on me. I had been trying to understand the source. Was it being away from my home and family for so much this year, the pressures of an overseas project dragging on too long, the stress of language and cultural differences built up over most of this year, or maybe was I just a big baby?

I did not understand it, but I was just feeling down. As I sipped my coffee I asked God to reveal to me the source, or just take it away (if that was His will), but to somehow give me a little something.

As I got up to get some more food, I saw something that just might do the trick at lifting my spirits. There were small bowls filled with “food” that caught my eye. It appeared to be a hard-boiled egg that had been left out long enough to turn brown and rot, pieces of some kind of meat, bits of green vegetable-like stuff, all resting on a bed of white goo. I read the label and it turned out to be “boiled egg, with tofu and boiled rice noodle, with pig entrails.” My first thought was “I got to get me some of that!” Just kidding, it was actually something like “huh? That sounds gross.” I walked on, looking for more palatable fare, then I thought “Ray, you take life too seriously sometimes, that is one of the reasons you have this sadness.” Then I thought, “what the heck, you only live once, might as well grab all the pig entrails you can!”

So, with a new vigor to my step I confidently grabbed a bowl and went back to my table to try out this new culinary delight. I sampled the various bits and pieces, trying them individually, then in combinations to experience the various textures and contrasting flavors together. In summary, I would have to say if you ever come across the opportunity to taste this dish, keep on moving, don’t eat it. It was one of the most horrible foods I have ever eaten. The bowl was sitting out, so the “food” was at room temperature, theoretically, but I swear it was below room temperature. Having the goo, egg and entrails at a low temperature added that little extra touch of “gross” to perfect the dish.

So how to end this post? Oh, yeah, my sadness has been displaced with perplexity. Why would anyone create such a dish? Is it perhaps just a joke on Americans? Hmmm. I did notice the girl behind the counter smiled and giggled a bit when I grabbed my bowl. Oh, no, now I’m getting paranoid.