Have Your Duck and Eat it Too

Yesterday at work management appreciated the dietary department by taking them out to eat at Zea's. Happily for me, I was also invited since I am the bus driver. We were permitted to order whatever we wanted. As a general rule, I am an adventurous eater unless I am being particularly diet or budget conscious at the moment. Yesterday I considered a grilled chicken salad (diet conscious), the Thai ribs (they are delicious and I have had them before), and finally the Twice cooked duck (which I have never had.) As a matter of fact, I had never eaten duck before so the choice was obvious. I needed to try the duck. The atmosphere of the restaurant is pleasant and the company was boisterous. When I wasn't listening to my lunch companions, I was listening to the table next to us. They were a family of undertakers discussing business and a recent family reunion. Apparently one of the family had passed and they had some pretty definite opinions concerning Uncle Joe's final remains. I found the mixture of shop and family talk quite funny.

In the course of time, the duck arrived. It was crispy and juicy. The was a lightly sweet and fiery hot sauce served with it that really enhanced the flavor of the duck. It was not at all oily, gamy or greasy as I had been led to believe that duck would be. As a matter of fact, the pesto chicken with penne pasta that I would have been eating at work that day was much more oily. Today I reheated the other half of the duck for lunch and it was a bit dry but still delicious.

When I returned to work, my boss asked me to come to her office. After she had covered what she wanted to talk to me about, she asked me what I had ordered. I was unprepared for the level of horror she expressed when I told her. "You order DUCK? And you ATE it. Wasn't it HORRIBLE and GAMY? How COULD you?" This is the woman who goes to the wild game dinner at her church every year. I wonder what she eats. When I asked her what was served last year, she told me that they had had bear, goat, buffalo and nutria (I personally thought that eating nutria was pretty disgusting.) So I said that it hadn't been gamy but that gamy wasn't always a bad thing. I had tried deer, rattlesnake, rabbit, and armadillo before and enjoyed them(not as a constant diet mind.) My poor boss just about fainted. "ARMADILLO! You at armadillo? Oh, Oh. That is just disgusting! How did they get the shell off? Uhh! I have lost my appetite for the rest of the day. You can go now." I don't think that she is going to ask what I had for lunch anymore.

RW