30 Days of Indie Travel- Day 11…FEAST

BootsnAll says: Share a food-related story from your travels.

The scene was McSorley’s Irish bar, Manhattan NY – former drinking haunt of Abraham Lincoln and home to multiple cobweb-covered chandeliers and sawdust-laden floors.We were happily sipping on some home-made light beer in glass tankards. That’s right, giant mofo tankards. Badass, right?

Since I was with the manager’s daughter, she said she would introduce me to a McSorley’s specialty. Every table is given a plate of crackers and condiments with their beer. To become a true aficionado of the bar, I needed to grab a cracker and pile it with cheese, mustard and onions.

Challenge accepted. The initiated smirked at me and said it was going to be “difficult”. I was perplexed. These pansy Americans couldn’t handle a bit of mustard? Please. I am the Rambo of mustard. I piled on a generous base of mustard and added the cheese and onions. With a defiant gleam in my eye, I took a huge bite of the cracker. I was ready to grin smugly at them in triumph.

That’ s when my mouth caught fire. Realising too late that this was the one place they used English mustard rather than the much gentler American alternative, tears filled my eyes as the mustard reared its ugly head. Ouch. That was hot.

Another tankard of beer was placed in front of me to quench the flames as the veterans laughed. I was now one of them.