Let me just start by saying that I love this country. Now for the story:
A few nights ago we all headed to a local pub/restaurant to catch a game of the World Cup together – as a family. Looking over the menu we were hoping there would be something kid friendly. As our kids eat Thai food it’s not hard to find good food. But since this was a family night out to watch the game on TV we wanted something special. That’s when Jen saw it… right there on the menu… Chicken Tendons.
Hmmm? Must be a typo, Jen reasoned. That would make sense… as Thais pronounce the last R or L in a word as an N. Hence, ‘Jennifer’ becomes Jennifun, and ‘football’ become footban. (As you can tell, we have this whole language thing all figured out.)
So Jen, in a moment of misplaced trust, ordered a plate of Chicken Tendons for the kids to share.
I’m sure you can imagine what came out. A mammoth plate full of (very un-tender) deep fried chewy, tough tendon/cartilage pieces. It was… to say it nicely… very funky.
Jen and I just stared in awe as the kids began popping the pieces into their mouths, chewing, chewing, chewing, and finally spitting out little bits of cartilage and scrap meat that they could’t chew. As you can imagine, we felt bad. We didn’t exactly want to throw them out and order a new plate of food (mainly because we are cheap, stingy punks). So we just ignored the issue and never let on that what they were eating was a normally discarded piece of chicken waste.
Lesson Learned: It’s OK to assume that something that sounds inedible on a menu probably is.