Warning: This may be hazardous to your appetite.
Reader (and eater) discretion is advised. So, push aside that bowl of Oops! All Berries and save it for later.
Now this is the kind of warning my family wishes Iβd give at meal time before I launch into a not-quite-appropriate-during-food-consumption story. But ya know what, they live with me. They know to expect stories like this, of my dadβs knee replacement surgery:
βGuess what, guys? Papaβs new knee is made of titanium and plastic. I asked him if he got to keep his old one and he was bummed because he forgot to ask if he could have it. He wanted to give the old knee cap to the dog.β
The kids looked horrified. Joe pushed his plate away and looked at me. βUgh. Really?β
βMoooom! Do you have to talk about that now?β
Whaaaat? Why not now?
So sensitive. They also didnβt like it when I shared a little statistic that Iβd learned from Stephen Colbert that hot dogs contain 2 percent human DNA. Because I work in the news and information industry, I proceeded to wonder aloud if that rogue DNA was from something benign β like a bit of fingernail β or maybe actual body parts caught in machinery. This did not sit well with them either. Honestly, itβs not like hot dogs even count as food. Unless theyβre wrapped in bacon.
Growing up, such talk would absolutely pass for appropriate suppertime banter. No one would even bat a fork. Once as a kid, I dined at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco with my extended family and when the main entree β chicken β came out, the head was right there on the plate.
Aunt No. 3 yelled, βDoes it still have the brains? The brains are the best part!β
She was not kidding.
This was mealtime. Iβm half Filipino, so I grew up looking a fair amount of my meals right in the eye. To totally steal a line from Mike Meyers in βSo I Married An Axe Murdererβ: Some of my motherβs native cuisine seems to be based on a dare.
A regular fixture on our family table, which my father politely requested be on the opposite end from him, was bagoong, a fermented (I had you at fermented, didnβt I?) unnaturally pink, shrimp sludge that smelled kinda rough but tasted salty and delicious.
In the spirit of bagoong, I keep a can of white fungus thatβs now six or maybe nine years past its prime on the pantry shelf as a not-so-thinly-veiled threat to my kids that yes, dinner could actually be worse than what is on the table. Ewwww. Even I have to admit, thatβs gross.