While I was at orientation in Buenos Aires, I went out with some of the other Fulbright students to a restaurant that served asado. What caught my eye was that they had a promoción (a menu special) of grilled vegetables. I was so happy to see that there was an option for someone like me who did not eat red meat. My friends and I sat down and ordered two platters of grilled vegetables and two platters of asado for them.
While eating, something funny happened to me. As I chewed on my grilled zucchini and eggplant, I realized that if I truly wanted a full experience of Argentine life, I would need to be flexible and accept the culture around me. My friend's platter had steak, pork sausage and blood sausage on it. I decided to be adventurous and gave it a try.
When I tried the morcilla (blood sausage), I was a little nervous. First of all, I was not used to eating meat aside from chicken and fish. Secondly, the idea of eating an animal's blood was a little unnerving to me. It took me about three minutes before I finally picked up the morcilla with my fork. Before eating it, I sniffed it to see if the smell would be a familiar one. To my surprise, it smelled just like any other sausage, which made me more comfortable eating it. That was the first step to accepting the fact that I was about to eat blood.
I closed my eyes and slowly began to chew the sausage. It had a creamy consistency and wasn't as solid as the other sausages on the table. It tasted like a paste of some sort and was very sticky, similar to glue. Surprisingly, by the time I had finished that piece, I was already asking for more!
