The way to a man's heart...

-
We all know the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. We also know that if a man's heart is not in something he's very unlikely to motivate himself in regard to that thing. Today these two thoughts collided in my life in the most unsavoury of ways.

But first the back story, given mainly because I was recently mocked by a friend for always giving the most elaborate back stories before telling the simplest of anecdotes! The back story is that I have long lectured Rowan on the biblical injunction to eat what is set before you. While I don't claim to be exactly excited by this instruction I do believe it to be important, particularly in a cross-cultural context. I always do my best to abide by it.

Fast forward to lunchtime today: we're sitting outside a pizza restaurant, almost overlooking the Neretva. The A5 piece of bright yellow photocopied paper that was the menu was safely secured against the breeze under the heavy glass ash-tray. Rowan scanned the menu for something she recognised and ordered a four-cheeses pizza. I decided to opt for the more intuitive approach and ordered 'SRDELA' (toppings: kečap, sir, srdela slana, majoneza, origano, masline.) Why? Just because it felt like the right option.

So if you haven't already copied all that lot into Google let me enlighten you. I inadvertently ordered a salted sardine pizza! Yes, it was disgusting, at least to my taste, but, yes, I ate what was set before me. And then I came home to learn pizza toppings so as to never repeat this error. Heart motivation is indeed stomach activated.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Empathise. We were in Barcelona and ordered the four cheese pizza, as it happens, only to discover that one of the four was a blue cheese! Disgusting and memorable. Like the cold beef sandwich I ordered in S.A. that threatened to be death by fire, until I removed the top slice of bread and wiped the yellow mustard, completely smothering the beef, off with my napkin. Thus it was edible, sort of.
17 September 2008 at 06:20
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

They've done it

-
Image
If you watch the video you'll see a guy lighting a flare in celebration moments after Bosnia and Herzegovina qualified for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. For him it was a surreal evening. I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I know how he felt because he told me. I also remember him once telling me: you don't understand, England always qualify for tournaments. English fans will know that qualification, when it happens, doesn't often come without some drama. But the point stands, England expect to qualify, and more often than not they do. Tonight is truly historic for Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have never qualified for a major tournament as an independent nation...until now. They made the playoffs for the last Euros and World Cup, losing to France and Portugal. We heard people try to offset the double disappointment with conspiracy theories as to why they came so close but remained so far. This time those are just not necessary. There will be in Brazil. Leg...
Read more

Where's winter?!

-
Image
Today is FIS World Snow Day . Last year we were out on a very patchy piste making the most of some less than ideal conditions at the slope above Jajce. This year there isn't a ski lift working in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina! You can't even say it's been a bad winter, it's barely been winter at all. There was a snow fall in November. A few resorts got enough of a base to open up for a week or two. We managed a trip to Vlašić on 21 st December, the day before World Snowboard Day . It was squeezed into a really busy period of work but the decision to head for the hills when we did looks better and better the longer winter waits to put in a proper appearance. Since the New Year the forecast has been promising snow 'next week'. It's well known that tomorrow never comes; next week has been showing even less intention to turn up. Locals tells us tales of a town virtually besieged by snow during their childhood winters. Even allowing for a little exagge...
Read more

Do you recognise this?

-
Image
Over the last couple of weeks Rowan and I have spent hours wandering the streets of Mostar trying to get our bearings. We've visited the four malls, sat in cafes and restaurants, run the gauntlet of pedestrian crossings and traversed the Neretva more times than we can remember. In one long walk through the tall apartment blocks that inhabit some much of the west side we chanced upon a strange, unfamiliar site. The picture does not show a rubber ball in some crazed state of decay. Rather it is a fruit. We know that much from watching two pigeons pulling one apart. We poked one or two ourselves. The pavement was littered with them, with more still clinging to the overhanging tree. Perhaps we're being particularly ignorant but this doesn't look like any fruit we've seen before. And therein lies today's lesson: fruit is still fruit, whether we recognise it or not. I look forward to discovering exactly what I photographed and to seeing what the 'fruit' of our lab...
Read more