I Smell Bacon, I Smell Grease

September 16, 2008


People give me things all the time here…a handful of walnuts, some candies, a piece of cake, a somsa (meat pie), and I never really question what the food I’m nourishing myself with consists of.

I’ve eaten so many different things out here that eating something strange doesn’t really phase me.

So when another teacher excitedly pulled me aside during class and opened up a plastic bag full of delicious-smelling meat, I said sure I’ll take a piece. It was saturated in a thick sauce, and she told me again and again what it was exactly, but I had never heard the word before so I just assumed it was no big deal.

Then when I was at home cutting a piece off later in the evening I realized it was different from other meats.

Probably because it wasn’t meat.

I was still curious, so I put a nice big fat piece in my mouth…but something was a little strange about this foreign object I was chewing.

Afterward I looked up the word she had said during class a few hours earlier.

“FAT”, the dictionary said. “PIG FAT” …”LARD.”

So I had a nice chunk of pig fat for dinner.

I feel gross.