So I ran into an interesting situation while at lunch earlier today, and I’m curious to hear how you guys would have handled it.
Let me start by saying that I was a vegetarian for eight years. When I was young I saw one of those slaughterhouse videos, and I was done with meat for a long time. Eventually I kind of got over it, though I still only eat meat that doesn’t totally resemble the animal, if that makes any sense. In other words, I eat chicken breast (as opposed to chicken wings or chicken legs), I have my steaks cooked medium or medium well, etc. I realize it’s not completely logical, though that’s what works for me.
Anyway, fast forward to today. We had lunch at the Spanish restaurant at the Hotel Kempinski. I was eying the vegetable paella and tried to order it, though was informed that it was for a minimum of two people. Darn. Nothing else on the menu really interested me, so I ended up ordering the king prawns. I like shrimp, and it seemed like the “safest” option.
45 minutes later (service is S-L-O-W in Spain) the waiter brings me this dish:
Oh boy. I knew there was no way on earth I was going to touch the “prawns.” I don’t like being “eye-to-eye” with what I’m about to eat, not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t even know how to eat these kinds of prawns. Obviously this was largely my fault since this is often the way they’re served in Spain, though I had no clue.
So how would you handle this situation? I had no problem paying for the meal, though I did feel bad wasting it. Furthermore, there was a language barrier between us and the waiter, so we were limited with our options.
Our course of action in the end? I’ll let the picture speak for itself:
Not my proudest moment, though it was a sticky situation.
I’m very curious to hear what you guys would have done, so I have a response ready the next time I run into this situation.
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