Saturday, June 6, 2009

"Do you like chicken feet??"

These were the words spoken in broken Italian by my chinese friend, Angelina, while we were sitting in a Chinese restaurant in Milan's Chinatown. 
Darn! I thought, I just told her I like EVERYTHING! I didn't think THAT would be her first suggestion! 
"Ummm..." I replied looking quite worried. "Not really."
"Okay," she started, "Ti piace le gambe di rana?" 
Gambe =legs....rana? Oh yea! "Rana" was the word for frog I learned from reading that kids story the other day! *gasp! Frog legs? Is that really the second choice?? That is the second most gross thing to me. I will eat anything BUT those two things!! 
The words "um, non so...ma, vorrei provare!" (I don't know, but I would like to try!) took a lot of courage coming out of my mouth. I remembered the prayer my friends going to various parts of the world where the cuisine is not exactly fine Italian would pray: "Lord, if I get it down will you please keep it down?" 

She had a huge, delighted smile come over her face telling me she loved having someone show interest in her and her culture. She ordered several different dishes to go with our succulent gambe di rana and everything was SO good. When the legs came out, however, they were in a pot that had bubbles floating to the top and popping just like a hot, steamy swamp. 

I bashfully asked her how to eat it and she put the whole thing in her mouth, chewed off all the meat, and spit out the bone. 

Va bene, I thought. Go for it. 

Let's just say I am really glad it had a good sauce on it! You know it's bad when you are chasing something with tofu...

The experience was very fun and it really helped me learn a lot more about Angelina. I'm sure we were amusing to the people around us as we sat at the table with our Chinese to Italian and English to Italian dictionaries in front of us! She has invited me to come to her house this coming wednesday to learn how to cook chinese food! I am looking forward to spending more time with her since she is rather lonely and will hopefully pick up some good recipies. (Minues the frog legs, hopefully.) 

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