Poukie & Hake

I know that some of you may not believe this post when you read it, but I’d like to start by saying that everything I am saying is 100% truth and that no stretching of the truth has been done here.

            Now that I’ve said that I’d like to start by saying that I officially made it 2 ½ weeks in South Africa without having to eat anything outside of my comfort zone. Now we all know that I’m a very picky eater when it comes to meats. I’ll eat ANY fruit or vegetable out there, but when it comes to meat I’m a strictly chicken, turkey and ground beef kinda girl. Well when I decided to come to South Africa I knew that there would be things I’d have to eat that were outside of my “comfort zone” but after being here 2 ½ weeks and not having to eat anything that I don’t eat at home I thought I was good to go. Well all of that went down hill Wednesday night when I went to scoop up some Stew to be served over rice and I found GIANT BONES in the pot. No joke, giant bones people. Bones that weren’t your typical like straight bones, these were bones that resembled vertebrae. Like the kind one would have in say your neck or back. I instantly was like “WHAT THE HECK ARE BONES DOING IN THIS STEW?!?” and all my fellow volunteers looked at me like I was crazy and told me it was for flavor. Huh. I’m pretty sure we have seasonings that get ya the same result. But I told myself I could do it and scooped up some Stew on rice being very careful not to get any bones in the mix, swallowed all my fears and then literally swallowed the food.

            So tonight (Thursday) I went over to the Hawthorn’s like I do on Thursdays for dinner and Institute. After finishing with the computer upstairs I walk into the kitchen and hear “Come on over to the table we’re having fish for dinner”. Instantly I freeze, because as we all know I don’t eat fish, heck I’m terrified of them when there alive, so there’s no way I’m putting it in my mouth. Let alone the past experiences that I’ve had with seafood. Like crab for example. :-/ So in my mind I quickly think “oooohhh man” And it was in that second that I realized that I would in fact be eating fish for the first time in my life that night. So I did. And I did it like a champ. I did tell Michelle that I had never eaten fish before which completely shocked everyone, but she told me it was Hake (or something like that) and that it didn’t have bones, but if I were to find one I shouldn’t try to swallow it because I would choke. Ha ha. Comforting right? But I dished up a serving and ate it like a champ. It kills me to say this but it wasn’t bad at all. I actually quite enjoyed it!

            Now back to the bones in the stew story for a second. At dinner I brought up the bones in the stew and was told that it’s a quite common dish here in South Africa called Poukie. I brought up how the bones looked like vertebrae and was then informed that it would look like vertebrae because Poukie is meat from the neck of a lamb. And that when you cook the stew you put the entire neck in, and then as it cooks the meat falls off. GROSS. I mean really vertebrae in stew? That’s just too much. But then on Sunday the Hawthorn’s made Poukie for me to try again and I ate it and I actually enjoyed it! What is this world coming too?!? Crazy right.

            Anyways, I definitely have eaten things I never thought I would. And I handled it all like a champ. I feel quite proud of myself. Hence the blog post about it. I’m sure some of you will be quite shocked. That’s all for now!