The WordPress/JetPack writing prompt for today is:
What’s the best local dish you’ve ever eaten while traveling?

You know who really isn’t a good candidate for traveling around the world? A picky eater, a.k.a. me. I’m not good at spicy, I despise seafood, and I’m not adventurous at all when it comes to food. I am no Anthony Bourdain.

Give me a flame-broiled chicken breast with fries and maybe some Swiss Chalet sauce, and I’m in gourmet heaven. Maybe add some stuffing and a Toblerone bar or Lindt chocolate ball around Christmas time. You realistically can’t get Swiss Chalet sauce outside of Canada, so I’ve been disappointed a lot.

Even still, by choice or not, I’ve eaten some bizarre things, mostly in Namibia. Mopani worms are a type of caterpillar that gets fried into a popcorn-like treat in northern Namibia, and sold in paper bags. I’ve also been offered goat’s brain, a delicacy, I’m told.

I’ve managed to avoid eating bosintang (dog meat soup) in Korea. As much as you may think bosintang is a myth, the wet markets in Seoul still sold the dogs while I lived there in 2004-2006. When my Korean co-workers learned I was going to Beijing, they taught me the Chinese character for cat, and made me promise not to eat in any restaurant that had it on the menu. One final Korea note, yes, the wet markets in Busan, where I worked for eleven months in 2007, did have live octopus for sale No, I never ‘old boy’d.’

Not to say that I haven’t had great meals. The Mongolian barbecue place in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea was worth repeated visits (but twenty years on, I doubt it’s still there). The Brazilian sambal place in Kuala Lumpur is worth the cost.

But by far the best local food I’ve ever eaten was, surprisingly, on an airline. I was flying from Nadi, Fiji to Auckland, New Zealand on Fiji Airways in 2002. There’s a Pacific Islander way of cooking meat. You start a big fire, and once it’s mostly coals, you bury the found under it. I’ve had this in New Zealand at a Maori cook out, and I’ve had it the first time I flew to Auckland. Our flight was slightly delayed while we waited for the food to arrive. Any disappointment anyone was feeling was completely dispelled once the food was brought onboard. The whole cabin filled with the smell of the delicious food. And once airborne, we were all glad to eat our skewers.