When we think of adventurous activities, usually the words that come to mind are “extreme sports” or “world traveler” or “anything that happens on “Fear Factor.” But what sort of adventure could any average person embark on?
Enter the best type of breakfast, lunch, or dinner for the high-spirited but low-commitment explorer of life: adventurous eating.
There are two ways to dine adventurously. One type of adventurous eating can be found on shows like “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” or Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations,” each featuring the consumption of bugs, worms, the beating hearts of animals, bull testicles, pig ears and whatever else will give the show the biggest shock factor. If that is your type of adventurous eating, more power to you.
But for the rest of us who may not be as keen on eating such unusual delicacies, adventurous eating can be as easy as driving down any random street and pulling into whatever restaurant looks like a worthy venture.
To show that it can be done, a friend and I decided to take our own eating adventure by looking for an interesting combination of dishes. Eventually, our search ended when we landed at a restaurant near Greenbriar Mall called “Abdullah the Butcher’s House of Ribs.” The restaurant seemed to sell a mix of Ribs, Southern cooking, and Chinese food.
As we learned later, there is only one other Abdullah the Butcher’s House of Ribs in the world—Japan.
For some background, Abdullah the Butcher is a retired WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) hall-of-famer known particularly for his character’s complete violence and brutality.
This happened to be his restaurant. The outside looked uncertain but my friend and I decided to go in anyway in the spirit of adventure.
This turned out to be a very good decision; although the place was rather empty, the inside was packed with antique furniture and had a nice ambiance. The walls were lined with pictures of Abdullah and other wrestlers and the atmosphere seemed pretty pleasant.
Before our food came, a woman walked in from outside and handed each of us a poster-collage of Abdullah and a business card (the top of the poster was signed Mr. Butcher). She informed us that Abdullah would like us to have the posters and to check out his upcoming YouTube channel.
That’s when we looked up and realized Abdullah had been sitting in his car outside. Before we could consider walking outside to meet him, though, he drove away.
The best part about the restaurant was the food. Although Ribs, Chinese, and southern cooking may not seem a good mix at first, I found my Chinese dish of vegetable fried rice superior to that of other Chinese restaurants I have visited. My friend told me that her Ribs and Macaroni with Cheese were very flavorful and delicious.
The moral of the story: food does not have to be disgusting and weird to be adventurous and you don’t need $500 dollars and a plane ticket to have an adventure.
All it takes is willingness and a good attitude to try something out of the ordinary; be it a holiday destination or your next meal.