I Can't Believe I Ate That!

I really do like the food in Spain, but recently I ate some stuff that made me cringe when I found out what it was.  

This is the picture of the cocido montañés that I ate at a restaurant during our trip to Picos de Europa.  Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this dish!  It was a delicious stew filled with white beans and various meats such as the rib (at the top of the picture) and the chorizo (red meat in the middle of the picture).  My madre makes me variations of this type of dish, and I love it.

However, I had two very unpleasant bites while eating this stew.  The first came when trying to eat the white blob located on the right side of the picture.  I just assumed that it was a potato because of the color.  My madre also puts potatoes in the cocidos she makes for me.  I tried to cut the potato with my spoon, but it was pretty difficult to cut into a smaller bite.  I then attempted to eat the bite of the potato.  It was too rubbery and impossible to chew.  I just thought that they put a piece of an uncooked potato in the stew, so that's why I couldn't eat it.  I asked the other girls at the table if their potatoes were uncooked.  Our program director who was eating with us informed me that it was not a potato, but a piece of fat.  So yeah, I tried to eat a blob of fat, and I do not recommend the experience.

The next questionable food I ate was the brown sausage located at the bottom of the picture.  I've actually eaten this food before in a stew that my madre made for me.  Whenever I don't know the name of the food I'm eating, I always ask her what the Spanish name for the food item is.  When I asked her about this particular item, the name didn't ring a bell, so I forgot what it was called.  Based on its shape and taste, I assumed it was a type of sausage.  However, I was surprised at how easily it fell apart.  Usually I need a knife to cut a piece of chorizo, but this sausage could be easily cut with a fork.  I thought that the sausage was fine- it wasn't the greatest food in the world, yet I didn't struggle to eat it.  Flash forward to the cocido stew at Picos where the same sausage was in my food.  I was informed that what I thought was a sausage was actually morcilla.

What is morcilla?  Well, in English, it is referred to as "black pudding." What is black pudding?  It's a meatless sausage that is made by cooking animal blood with rice.  It's an incredibly popular dish here in Spain, especially in the northern/central regions.  But now that I know what morcilla is made with, I don't think I'll be trying it again.