Task 26: Eat 5 foods I've never tried before - 3rd post

As we're now in South Africa - specifically Franschhoek, the culinary high spot of the country and arguably of the entire continent - the scope for completing this particular task seemed promising.  Over the years of coming here, including on safari, I have eaten some fairly weird and mostly wonderful things, but I was pretty certain there were still some I hadn't tried.  Sure enough this week has yielded two: kohlrabi and sweetbreads.

According to Wikipedia, kohlrabi is a low, stout cultivar of cabbage, although I think it looks more like a sort of corrugated green turnip:

It can be eaten raw or cooked and is said to taste like a cross between cabbage and broccoli stems, which doesn't sound too appealing.  I had the advantage of eating it at Ryan's Kitchen, a restaurant ranked no.4 in Franschhoek, where it formed the core of the vegetarian main dish, in the guise of pasta-style ribbons - lots of them - with asparagus, sautéed mushrooms, truffle and Parmesan:

The first mouthful was interesting and the accompanying ingredients were delicious.  It fairly quickly palled, though, as I chomped through what felt like an entire turnip.  At least it's apparently rich in vitamin C and various minerals, so no doubt it's done me good - and I never have to eat it again.

Now to the sweetbreads.  Anyone squeamish might like to stop here.  I'd thought they were either another term for offal or for the unmentionable bits, neither of which would be top of my list.  In fact they are the thymus gland (or sometimes the pancreas), usually from calf or lamb.  My opportunity to try them came as a starter at lunch today at Foliage, the no.1 restaurant in Franschhoek.  Its rating is well deserved and despite the excellence of its cuisine, it is far less expensive than its equivalents in the UK, partly due to the favourable exchange rate.

Discovering what sweetbreads actually are, was not at all welcome news as far as I was concerned.  As many of you will know, Peter has a condition called myasthenia gravis and although there is no cure, the removal of the thymus gland (at the base of the throat) can alleviate symptoms.  It is quite a delicate operation and in his case it definitely helped. The thought of eating something - albeit not a human version - that he had had removed, was frankly repellent.  If that's the way I feel, I should be a vegetarian and I don't really have any excuse.  The only line I draw is at eating veal, which most of my vegetarian friends regard as not much more than tokenism.  In the unlikely event that any of them are still reading this post, they may take some grim satisfaction from my quailing at the prospect ahead of me.

In the event, it was delicious.  The dish was described on the menu as "pan-fried black pudding and sweetbread salad, charred cabbage, Niel's bacon, hazelnut and raspberry vinaigrette, onion croutons".    The balance of flavours was superb and the sweetbreads had a delicate lightness which was unexpected. The attractive presentation added to the pleasure:

Of the five new foods I've tried for this Task, the only one I've disliked is the kohlrabi, which was probably the one I thought I would enjoy most.  I wonder if I'll find the same with other Tasks I've yet to attempt?