Next time, I order!

I know I wrote a day or two ago and said that you can get used to almost anything, but . . . I just had a meal that's made me reconsider that stance.

I met a friend for dinner tonight, and he took me to a place that I'd never been to before. I actually didn't know it was a restaurant. I thought it was just a couple of chairs in an alley. But lo and behold, it's a restaurant! He asked me what I wanted, so I just told him I'd have whatever he was having. While this approach is sure to win you friends among the locals, it can also be a very risky move.

My friend ordered something called "halawa." Up until today I thought the word halawa meant sweets. But apparently a better translation is "all the parts of the cow we don't eat in the States." Intestines, stomach, large chunks of fat . . . and that's just the parts I could identify. On the up-side, I must have an amazing immune system by now :)