Our waiter rattled off a list of dishes we could choose to
order. I understood most of the names, but there was one I simply could not
translate to myself: carrilleras. I
beckoned my professor over and asked if he knew what it was. He gave the
students on either side of me a shifty look, leaned down, and whispered in my
ear, “I don’t want to say what it is out loud. Everyone will probably think
it’s gross.”
“You
can tell me,” I replied, but he said he wouldn’t until after I’d eaten it. My
curiosity piqued, I boldly told our waiter I wanted the carrilleras. As he left, the student on my right asked me what I’d
just ordered. When I told her I wasn’t quite sure, she goggled at me and said,
“So you’re eating something without even knowing what it is?”
“Yep,”
I replied cheerfully.
Twenty
minutes later, my carrilleras
arrived. Four lumps of meat lay on the plate, drenched in a rich brown sauce. I
admit I felt a slight sense of foreboding as I poked the meat with my fork. Flakes
of it instantly slid from the chunk, a good sign. I took a bite, and the most
wonderfully tender meat I’d ever tasted touched my tongue. It seemed to melt
away as soon as it reached my mouth. Within five minutes, an entire chunk was
gone, and everyone in my area of the table had tasted the delicious meat.
![]() |
Beef carrilleras, Madrid |
As
I started on the second chunk, my professor wandered over and asked if I liked
the carrilleras. I said yes and asked
if he’d tell me what they were now. His grin grew even wider and he said, loudly
so that the whole table could hear, “Cow’s cheeks.” Everyone at my end of the
table, including me, laughed and we went right on eating them.
The
carrilleras contained an important
lesson. I had no clue what they were, and I wanted to find out, so I tried
them. They turned out to be one of my favorite dishes in Spain. I might not
have wanted to try them had I known what they were before I ate them. The carrilleras showed me that sometimes,
asking no questions and taking a leap of faith can lead you to some wonderful
food indeed.
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