This week’s Friday Five from RevGalBlogPals is all about food! Thanks to 3dogmom for this week’s prompt!

My first ever Friday Five is dedicated to Nikki MacDonald, sister RevGal, who was hungering for an opportunity to write about Haggis. With that introduction, today’s FF is all about food!

1) Is there a food from a foreign land whose reputation led to trepidation when you had a chance to give it a try? Did you find the courage to sample it anyway? If so, were you pleasantly surprised or did you endorse the less than favorable reputation that preceded it?

When I was in France for a short mission trip, I had the opportunity to try escargot. I was, quite honestly, skeptical. The descriptions I had heard ranged from “it’s like thick snot” to “chewy garlic.” So… I tried them. And they were DELICIOUS! Garlicky, warm, melt-in-your-mouth… oh my. I haven’t tried them since, because, well, I’m not convinced they would be good. Somehow, a restaurant that sells burgers, chicken fingers and fries should not be trusted to get escargot correctly. But maybe that’s just my foodie prejudice showing!

2) What food from your own country/culture gets a bad rap?

As an American, you can get just about any kind of bread, and most of the time if it’s not mass-produced yeasty white bread, it’s pretty good. So I’ll come to the defense of German bread! A lot of people have only tried the dark brown German bread that has the consistency of cardboard with a tough crust. Mmmm. Delicious. Not. I have had scrumptious rolls, buns, breads and pastries during trips to Germany.

3) Of what food are you fond that others find distasteful?

I. LOVE. RHUBARB. I like to make it into sauce and have it cold over yogurt or just plain. And I also LOVE ELDERBERRIES! When I lived in Ohio, they were growing along the back roads (usually around a lot of poison ivy!) They are a tiny, dark berry that you usually see in August. They don’t cultivate well, and I haven’t found a local source, other than frozen ones from Trader Joe’s. Elderberries are the slighty dusky, earthy-tasting relative of blueberries but pack a whole lot more flavor. I usually put them into a pie. Yummy!!! A third food that I enjoy and the Skepto-meter is high in my house is COCONUT. Yup. I can buy a package of Almond Joy bars and they will last me months. No one will touch them but me. Heh.

4) Is there a country’s food, not native to you, that you go out of your way to eat?

A good peanut chicken pad thai over rice noodles. I’m cheap. I can enjoy it at a fast food place or a nice Thai restaurant.

5) What is your guilty pleasure food?

Can there be anything but CHOCOLATE?

BONUS: What was your most memorable meal (good or bad), either because of the menu, the occasion, the company, or some other circumstance that makes it stand out?

The year we remodeled our kitchen, I was without an oven and cook-top for 4 months. Because of some issues with the County code inspector (not our contractor) the grand reveal was delayed into the middle of December. It was disheartening. Our architect/remodeler gave us a gift certificate to a local upscale restaurant. When we realized that we could use it Thanksgiving week, we celebrated with our daughters (one just home from college) and had some of the best cookies, pie, cheesecake and crème brûlée EVAR.  As you can see we didn’t exactly wait to get a nice fancy picture… we dug right in!

While we did get into our kitchen a few weeks before Christmas, this was a memorable night out. (If you want to read about the whole process and experience of our kitchen remodel — which actually was a good one — I blogged about it here!)

———oo———

An afterthought…

I live in a part of the world and an area of my own country where most of us do not struggle to put food on the table. I am blessed beyond measure to have all I need and, indeed, all I could really want, in terms of creature comforts and amenities. While I’ve just written a blog post that focuses on the excesses and loves of my palate, I realized that I needed to stop and count my blessings. So I am… If you are looking for a ministry to support in your area, I encourage you to help your local Food Bank or community soup kitchens. And to truly be thankful to God for that next meal.

And on that note, here’s a Prayer for the Hungry… join me in remembering if you are so blessed as I am, for those who are without food and clean water today…

A Prayer for the Hungry 

By Steve Hammond

O God, we pray now for the hungry—
not the spiritually hungry
not the emotionally hungry
not the psychologically hungry
(though they surely need our prayers)—
we pray now simply for the hungry hungry.

We know in the realm that Jesus showed us
no one goes hungry, no one lacks daily bread.

In Your Realm, those with food remember the hungry,
those with food share their food with the hungry,
those with food work on behalf of the hungry,
those with food weep for the hungry, even if it makes them feel guilty.

God, we are grateful you never forget about the hungry—
that you long for the hungry to be fed.

God, we are grateful you never forget about those who aren’t hungry—
that you long for them to feed the hungry.

God, the hungry and unhungry stand as one before you;
loved with the same love, both in need of you and each other.

God of the Hungry, so many are hungry.
Rescue your hungry children,
fill their stomachs with food and their hearts with gladness,
so that they, too, might experience the luxury
of dealing only with their spiritual hunger,
their emotional hunger,
their psychological hunger.

Send your Spirit to the hungry hungry, and to the unhungry,
until all feast with Jesus in the new age.

In the name of Jesus and the hungry hungry we pray.
Amen.

End of sermon. Thanks be to God.