Last week our class ate at a nice restaurant in Monkstown, Dublin called Valparaiso. As I was trying to decide what to order, I was thinking about how I missed that tingling feeling in your mouth and on your lips when you’re eating something spicy. That’s when my eye fell on the words “spicy chicken wings” under appetizers and I knew I had to order it.
After I ordered my meal, I was very excited and very impatient to take that first bite of my chicken wings. I’ll finally get to eat something spicy to get my taste buds going again, I thought to myself. As my mouth started to water and my stomach started to grumble, the server brought out my plate of chicken wings with two celery stalks on the side. Comfort food at its finest, right? Not exactly.
Turns out calling something spicy in Ireland doesn’t guarantee that it’ll actually be spicy. My chicken wings were covered in a sweet, slightly tangy sauce similar to teriyaki sauce. Now even though they weren’t spicy, the wings were absolutely delicious and I ate all of them right down to the bone. It just simply wasn’t the same as the wings in Texas, but in a way I think that’s a good thing.
It’s the minuscule details and experiences like these that are imperative when traveling abroad because they differentiate one country from the next. And more importantly for me, it’s what differentiates every other country from the U.S. And why should I go to a place, if it’s going to be just like home?
So in the end, though my mouth wasn’t tingling like I had hoped, I did end up completely stuffed with delicious wings, seafood and chocolate mousse. I was even tempted to unbutton my jeans to allow for a little more room!
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