Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Adventures in Salmon

So if you read my last post, you know that I'm trying to, um...try new things. I'm attempting to expand my world that has become way too predictable. So for my birthday I was invited out to lunch...to a place of my choosing. I was very excited about the restaurant I chose. It has good food, good atmosphere and a wonderful patio. Well, that's what I thought anyway. It was, shall we say, not what I thought. I was sadly disappointed.



Then I was invited to a salmon feed. I am not a fish person. Seafood just isn't my thing. Fish and chips is the closest I get to a meal from the sea. Still, I'd promised myself that I would take new opportunities, so I said "yes." The salmon feed is in a town of about 1,000 people, and is a 20-minute drive from my hometown. Being the aspiring photographer that I am, I brought my camera along. We'd heard about the long lines so we arrived a half-hour early.



My father and I walked across the sawdust floor of the barn to see just how this salmon is cooked. A team of about twenty men took turns at the barbecue. The mood was jovial as we waited. This was the best that country life has to offer. The salmon was brought in fresh that day and cooked over a long hand-made barbeque. The fish was pressed between chicken wire on a square frame of wood. Two men and one turn of the special contraptions ensured that the salmon was cooked "just so."



We made our way back to get in line and luckily my husband and mother saved us a spot. The line already stretched from one end of the barn to the other and far beyond. Our plates filled, we found a seat at a long table. One bite and I knew-this was the best seafood I'd ever had. It was tender and had that smoked flavor.



And the experience...it was fabulous. Stepping beyond my normal everyday routine is definitely worth it. But be warned: Sometimes your experience is a dud. But perhaps the bigger warning should be this: Be careful, you just might discover that jumping out of your nicely wrapped box, leads to something more. It's addictive. Do it once and you'll find yourself looking for new adventures in everything around you. And that was the point, now wasn't it!



Find something new to do, then come back here and tell us all about it! Make life happen!



Karen

2 comments:

Virginia Lee said...

Hooray for trying something new! As someone with food allergies it is scary to try new foods, so I understand. I have to be very careful, for example, with chilis and tropical fruits.

Your story reminds me of when I was working at a theatre in northwestern Wisconsin. I was invited by elderly neighbors to attend a Knights of Columbus fish fry. I was somewhat trepidatious, for I was not a big fish eater then, but I went and ended up having a blast while enjoying things I'd never encountered at the church potlucks I'd been exposed to in the South growing up.

Again, hooray! It sounds like a lot of fun.

Karen Fisher-Alaniz said...

Thank you for the encouragement. When I read the book, The Artists Way by Julia Cameron, I didn't quite get what she meant by going on one "artist date" a week. But now I'm doing my own version of that.

Because I don't have a job that takes me outside the home anymore, I find that I really need to make myself get out there and just "be" with people and have new experiences. And so far...it's been a very good thing.

My mom is from the south by the way...Florida.

Karen