Having gone to cooking school, I know well that French cuisine is oh, so extraordinary and oh, so walking the line of food that I can actually stomach.
I have read La Techinque and La Methode by Pepin. I have read Grastonomiqueand Escoffier. I know that the French have done wonderful things with food, and I know that they do things with food that I could never handle.
Even though I know this, I figured that when I was in Lyon, the gastronomical capital of the world, I needed to eat something decidedly Lyonnaise. I was tougher than anything the French would put in front of me, I could eat it, I had this one chance to do it.
So here is the Lyonnaise sausage-
Looks harmless enough, right?!
Much to the dismay of our very French waiter, I could not get this down. There was no earthly way that I could eat all that was encased in this gastronomical capital of the world sausage. In the end, I was more thankful for french fries than I have ever been.
Just in case you are wondering, Lyonnaise sausage is full of mystery meats. Very large chunks of mystery meat. Mystery meat that on inspection was far too pale and varied in texture to be the cuts of meat that my stomach can handle.
I made a valiant effort, but could not eat more than half. And eating that half was tough, full of moments of really, really thinking that I was finally in France and I was going to totally embarrass myself by losing my dinner. And I make it a point to never embarrass myself. Our waiter knew I was struggling to eat the sausage of his town. I could feel his glares every time he walked by…
We decided to really make him happy by asking him to take our picture. Nothing screams dorky tourists like asking the waiter to take your picture…with multiple cameras.
Lyonnaise is disgusting and I literally eat everything.
PS Have you ever read the Julie and Julia Project…concerning French Cuisine?
So gross. I remember almost vomiting when you showed me the picture.
[...] to me since I love food and have an iron stomach. Nothing has ever bothered me before (expect one Lyonnaise sausage.) It is unsettling to eat at a restaurant, trying to communicate to the staff what you need, and [...]