You want me to eat what??

Jessica's tale about "trying something new" at a Japanese restaurant near where she lives has inspired me to talk about some of the more exotic foods I had the oppportunity to try in Japan.

While we were up in the ski resort town of Niseko, we met up with some family friends of Bertie's.

We were lucky enough to be treated to dinner when we met up with them, so out we went with the parents and their two children - a girl called Verity who was about 21 and her younger bother who was 17.

Unlike some people who may be reading this blog, I am not, nor will I ever be, a vegetarian.
I understand why some people choose to go down that path, and I fully respect it, but it ain't for me.

I'm also very adventurous with my food - I'll often try things that I've never heard of before o that sound absolutely disgusting - because let's face it, as long as it's on a menu, someone, somehwere has to think it's okay.

I opened the menu at this resturant and was treated to pictures (in Japan all dishes have photos of them on the menu) of every single part of a chicken you could possibly think of.

It was a yakitori restaurant - which meant the meat/vegetables/animal bits were served on skewers and cooked over hot coals.

Now, when I say they had every bit of the chicken imaginable I mean it - chicken beaks, entrails, livers, kindeys, brains, hearts, feet, necks, the list goes on.

I stopped over the chicken hearts - and kept going, however the young 17-year-old brother we were with ordered a mixed plate - and out came the chicken heart skewer.
I knew what it was, he didn't, and the look on his face should have been enough to put me off trying it --

--but I'm a sucker for a challenge.
So in popped the chicken heart, and, I nearly spewed. It was horrible. It looked like meat and smelt like meat but had the consistency of mashed potato.

That was about as adventurous as I got in Japan. I tried prawns legs and eel, but everything else was "normal" japanese food.

The best part about the whole experience was that sometimes you just weren't sure what you were getting. Be warned - this country is not good for fussy eaters. But I had a ball :)