It all started about 5-6 years ago when a friend and I went to Babbo in NYC. Mario Batali's restaurant was a prime destination as we both were on our way to become "gourmands".
She is a vegetarian and I grew up with pigs feet and cow tongue. So after getting recommendations from the waiter and sommelier (which were both excellent) I did a little menu exploring. On the appetizer list was a Warm Tripe "Alla Parmigiana". I've never had tripe before and was really curious. The texture was kinda like linguine and didn't have much of a taste besides the sauce. I thought to myself, this isn't too bad. I could probably do something even weirder.
My new obsession was born. Not just food (I've been obsessed with that for years) but weird and different foods. Starting then I would be "that one" who would try the weirdest thing on the menu, at any restaurant. But something was still missing. As i was to find out, I was just going to the wrong places.
A street hockey friend of mine and I were talking about food, probably one drunk evening. She said she belonged to this group called the Gastronauts. They are a foodie group that meets once a month at a restaurant around the 5 boroughs and eats weird food. It was free to join, you just needed to explain why you think you should be a part of it.
Easy enough, so I went to the website and explained that I grew up on pigs feet, cow tongue and every kind of game you can think of (my family were/are hunters). They gladly accepted me with open mouths and I went to my first "meeting" at La Fusta in Elmhurst on May 5th. (follow up post on that)
My life hasn't been the same since. It's something I look forward to all month and do get upset when i can't make one. It has since encouraged me to consider setting up a brooklyn foodie club.
We'll see.
For more about the Gastronauts, go to http://www.gastronauts.net/index2.html
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