Jeff and I are not very adventurous when it comes to what we eat, and any kind of raw meat is off limits. We both have managed to avoid this......until now. Here's the story. We were sent to Samoa to help organize a conference and the first day we arrived we had a meeting with all the Samoan people who were to work with us as a team to pull it all together. They expressed their frustration with us about how the organization of this event was going up to that point. Since this was our first meeting with them, we wanted to assure them we were there to work, ease feelings and tensions and make sure there was a feeling of cooperation between us all. At the end of the meeting we took them out to lunch. When you are away from the workplace, it's amazing how people relax and enjoy each other over food. Because we did not know what to order, we let them do all the ordering and the first thing that was brought out was large plates of raw tuna. Jeff and I looked at each other and knew there was no way we could politely refuse and risk offending them. We both managed not to gag, get sick or do something else embarrassing! Here are a couple other examples of local cuisine:
Jeff enjoying some sea grapes.
The slimy insides of a sea urchin. We just couldn't go there!!
