A horse is a horse, of course, of course...

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I've ridden them, bet on them, but never knew they were so tasty....

So we’re in Luxembourg, we’ve found a nice restaurant, we’ve been walking all day in the sun and the rain, we’re hungry…really hungry. Since most everything closed at 18:00 and we had nothing else to do, we were planning on a nice long dinner. Which is exactly what we got. We arrived at the restaurant (I’m still kicking myself for not writing down the name) and got a great table for four upstairs. The only problem was that the menu was written in French. Between the four of us we pretty much had English in the bag, and Laura, being from Spain and all, had a good grasp of Spanish, but none of us know much French. I mean we could tell which were the wines, beers, appetizers, entrees, etc. but the details were not forthcoming. So, what did I do? I asked our server. Turns out that her English was about as good as our French, but through hand gestures and what common words we knew we were able to get a pretty good idea of what was good to eat. But then I asked her about the page containing what appeared to be beef steaks prepared in different ways. She looked at the menu, paused in thought, held up one finger to signal for us to wait, and then disappeared downstairs. None of us had a clue why she left, but we soon found out. Apparently she left because she didn’t know the English translation for something on the menu, and had to go ask someone. And what was the word she was looking for? Horse. Yep, you heard me correctly. The menu page I was asking about was a list of horse steaks prepared in different ways. AWESOME!!! I was immediately on board for a steaming plate of Mr. Ed, and surprisingly, so was the rest of the team. Daniel and Christina had horse steak with garlic and onion sauce, while Laura and I both opted for the horse steak with mushroom sauce. It was delicious, one of the best meals I’ve had since I’ve been here. The meal was served with a salad that had an excellent dressing, plenty of bread, and a giant bowl of fries. I paired mine with a nice red wine, and the total effect was fantastic! Now, the sauce on my steak was very good, but also prevented me from distinguishing any subtle new flavors in the horse meat. It really tasted very similar to beef. The main difference I noted was in the texture of the meat. My steak seemed to be a little more lean and firm than a beef rib eye or T-bone, but delicious none the less. So there you have it…an account of my first experience eating horse. And if any hippies read this and feel the need to give me grief about eating such a friendly, huggable creature, please remember that I’m from the south, and spare me your rambling nonsense. After all, I’m a card carrying member of PETA (People for the Eating of Tasty Animals).

After dinner was over we made for the hostel. We got lost in the rain for a while (my fault, I admit), but forntunately it wasn’t as cold as it had been, although we still got a good soaking. We eventually made it back, played ping pong for about an hour, then called it a night. What a great day.

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Photos

My Meal
Medium rare horse steak with mushroom sauce...ummmmmmm.

The Rest of the Crew
L-R: Christina, me, Laura, Daniel.