To: Crecente
From: Ashcraft
Subject: The Chicken Before The Egg

I don't really have a problem with the food in Japan. The only things that I try to stay away from are eggplants (childhood trauma) and sour plums (don't like sour food). Everything else is a-okay. Anyone who's spent time in Japan knows it's not all raw stuff, and that people don't eat sushi every single night. But, there is food Westerners would consider "exotic" like whale, horse and poisonous blowfish. I've sampled all on numerous occasions and would recommend them all — raw, especially!

During the weekend, Mrs. Bashcraft, Mini Bash and I all went to a friend's restaurant for a birthday celebration. It was a yakitori restaurant — small, cozy. Half way during the dinner, a plate of raw chicken made an appearance. Now, like I said, I'm hip to pretty much whatever people each here, but raw chicken? When I was a child, I was told that you should wash your hands while handling raw chicken, that raw chicken was dangerous. The owner of the restaurant assured us that the chicken was safe, and I didn't want to be rude, so I ate a couple pieces of sliced raw chicken and raw innards. Could not bring myself to eat the raw chicken liver, which my wife did and then nearly yakked it back up. During the entire time, I couldn't relax and kept having visions of being rushed to the hospital.

But! A day or so has passed, and both Mrs. Bashcraft and I are fine. I do think that there is safe small raw chicken meat that's out there, but some of it could possibly be dicey. It's a crap shoot, I think, so proceed with caution. For the curious, raw chicken doesn't taste like chicken.

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