Not a restaurant story but...
I was once invited to a Spanish arts' councillor's house for dinner. This was a truly fascinating experience. He greeted us wearing nothing but a pair of greying shorts and more eyeliner than I wear on a night out. Not only this, but he kept sort of lowering his shorts periodically, presumably to air his testicles or something. Ugh. However, despite their bizarre appearance and naturist tendencies, Miguel and his wife were lovely people and we all got on extremely well - that is, until dinner, when we were presented with the Basque "delicacy" of stewed pigs´trotters.

I am not a fussy eater. I will try anything as long as it doesn´t contain peppers, frankfurters or marmalade. I am not squeamish about eating things just because they´re weird, or foreign, or even because they look disgusting. I´ve tried everything from sushi to sauerkraut and liked most of it. So believe me when I say that these pigs´trotters were not fit for human consumption. It was seriously THE most repulsive thing I have ever seen in my entire life. The smell alone was bad enough, but once I started picking at it, I rapidly discovered that it contained no meat as such, but a sort of flaccid, glutinous, gristly, fatty substance....it was at this point that I realised that despite all the trouble our hosts had gone to to cook us this traditional dish, I was not going to be able to bring myself to eat a mouthful of it. In fact, I was beginning to feel decidedly sick. A cursory glance round the table confirmed that my compatriates were looking equally green. The Spaniards claimed not to be the slightest bit offended by our refusal to touch their gourmet concoction, but I can´t help feeling that relations may have been slightly damaged.

Come back Judaism, all is forgiven.
(grandmasterfluffles Come to my Armageddon party on, Wed 3 May 2006, 13:19, Reply)