The day my stomach decided it had had enough of my shenanigans.

Work-Buddy-James has a bit of a passion for everything that is Chinese. In the course of our short friendship he has tried to get me excited about this too.

He has asked me to listen to Chinese music... I listened to about 3 bars before I told him to turn it off. He appealed to my 'film review' side and asked me to review some Chinese films... I thought of the concentration behind reading subtitles and immediately felt knackered so fobbed him off with the excuse that I can't read.

Today though, he asked me if I had ever eaten Dim Sum. I hadn't. I was also hungry. So I decided that I would be supportive of his passion this one time and partake of this food.

We went in our lunch break and upon looking at the menu and seeing that there was no Sweet and Sour Pork or Chow Mein of any kind to be found, I realised that this was not going to be anything like my usual take away.

Due to this, Work-Buddy-James took over the ordering of the food, ordering dishes that quite frankly scared me whilst assuring me that it would be the best food I'd ever tasted.

When the waiter arrived with our Chinese tea instead of my usual Diet Coke, I took a deep breath and reassured myself that everything would be okay. Change is a good thing right?

Then the food arrived and my need for a greater intake of breath arrived with it. It was food that looked something like this.



And this



Which scared me, because I was used to food that looked like this



So I pasted a big smile on my face, scolded myself for not having an open enough mind and then looked around for my plate.

It wasn't until I saw Work-Buddy-James tucking in with the tiny saucer and bowl in front of him that I realised that this was what I should be using. James looked at me with a grin then and said.

"I was going to start explaining how you use the bowl and spoon with the chopsticks but then I realised that you're not an idiot."

Oh how we laughed.

Throwing quick manic glances in his direction for tips, I reached for my first slimy dish (looking remarkably slug like but which I was assured was in fact beef in noodle) and attempted to eat it.

I will admit now, all of the dishes I ate were really nice and with each new dish I puffed up more and more in pride at how daring and open I was being for trying new food.

However, somewhere around my third new dish, my stomach perked up and started sending confused messages to my brain.

I could almost hear it's complaints, saying "What is this new thing? And this one? I don't recognise anything you are giving me right now." After the fourth dish it practically shouted "Stop confusing me!"

It was at this point the final dish was brought out, completely encased in a giant leaf, and it was also at this point where even my brain said "enough Lisa."

Remember from this blog when I said that Work-Buddy-James doesn't like to waste food? Well, because of this apparently, I had no choice but to eat the leaf dish (which turned out to have rice and meat inside).

Not wanting to suck in my supportive friend moment, I took the smallest chunk and put it in my bowl.

I then had to negotiate with my stomach, promising it a Big Mac later if it just accepted one more new thing. It agreed with the bargain but begrudgingly, and I psyched myself up and ate the final dish.

This has been my day. My stomach is still intact and, if offered in the future, most of the food I would eat again. But as for now? I think I'll be sticking to my tuna sandwich tonight.