The Case of the Horseshoe Crab

Finally, after waiting almost five years I managed to eat the infamous Horseshoe Crab. To my understanding it is the last remaining of it type of species. A relique from ancient times millions of years ago.

I ordered the Horseshoe Crab from a somewhat sceptic waitress. She looked deep into my eyes and asked:

- Are you really sure you want this? It is very spicy?

- Oh yes, I really want this dish. Actually I've been waiting a long time for it!

The waitress went away, and I must admit that I felt very excited as we waited for this culinaric sensation to be served. My dear wife who is a little bit more reluctant towards strange culinaric sensations choose another dish.

At last, waiting for about 40 minutes the Seahorse Restaurant on Koh Samet, Thailand, had the long awaited dish served. The Horseshoe Crab came in lying on its back filled with spices and a lot of stuff that was difficult identify.

Then the consumption of the Horsehoe Crab started. It was spicy alright. Hard-core chili and coriander. The Horsehoe Crab itself consisted of small circular quinoa-like balls, sometimes within some meatlike stuff. Despite the spices, this delicacy turned out to be a dissappointment, for more than one reason. First, it was rather tasteless. Second, the following night I spent in the lavatory. Third, It felt funny for three days after. My conclusion is that this was my one and only Horseshoe Crab.

Not that I hold it against the restaurant, but I should have noticed that Horseshoe Crabs are a sort of showcase for these restaurants, rarely bought and consumed.

Therefore there is a high possibility that the Horseshoe Crab investigated here, had been lying around for a couple of days or so. Ergo: My own fault.

Relaxing on Koh Samet

Since a couple of days I and my wife have been experiencing the nice and warm weather on the island of Koh Samet, Thailand. As we left Arlanda, Sweden, we experienced minus 13 degrees and a freezing blizzard. We were using our last strength as we managed to got to Terminal 5 and up and away to some hours later land in Bangkok, Thailand.

To us it seems like a miracle to exchange this horrible excuse for a weather against warmth and sunshine and nice food like fried rice and prawns, or a very nice and spicy Som Tam. Also we seen a lot of exotic birds, like 7 or 8 Hornbills and a lot of what seems to be some kind of Oriole or Beostare. I'll be back on that one later.

Later in the week I plan to eat rare and ancient Horseshoe Crab. Exciting...

Ridfrek Comes Out of the Garden

One day Ridfrek had had it. The Wisperer had been goin' on for days about the world outside the garden and finally Ridfrek got fed up and opened the gate and curiously peeped out on the world outside. It was huge... it was in fact enormous... Ridfrek got frightened and cloosed the gate fast. Immediately he heard the wispering voice of the Wisperer:

"- That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Ridfrek peered out again. Suddenly somebody was standing in front of him. The stranger standing in front of him had a similar hat as he had. The stranger also had a beard and the clothing seemed similar to Ridfrek's.

"- Who are you?" Ridfrek asked after a long silence...

"- Who am I? You seriously claim that you don't know my name?" said the stranger.

Ridfrek was puzzled. The stranger actually answered a question with another question. Ridfrek was unaccustomed with this, cause all he knew was his often pointless conversations with the Wisperer. The Wisperer who never answered anything directly and always spoke in riddles. After a while Ridfrek had managed to formulate another question.

"- Yes, that what I asked you! Who are you?" he said emphatically.

"- Who am I? Outrageous, the man is an imbecile!" the stranger concluded and turned arround and went away. Ridfrek didn't understand anything at first. But after a while he realised that he had had his first encounter with another person and it somehow had failed. He had almost made contact...

The Garden and Beyond

One day the Wisperer told Ridfrek that there was a world beyond the Garden. Ridfrek was very surprised as the thought had never occurred to him. He lived in the illusion that the universe was the Garden and nothing more. The new information was very tough to dissolve and Ridfrek had to consider it for weeks, even months. Of course, it is a tough one; You live in the illusion that your life is lived in a confined space, when suddenly someone tells you that there is more... much more! Ridfrek got totally lost, he couldn't even imagine the universe outside the Garden. In the end the Wisperer got fed up with Ridfrek and his indecisiveness.
"- Ridfrek, the Wisperer wispered, you have to go outside the Garden in order to find out what it's like there. You cannot imagine or speculate upon something which you have no experience of. It's pointless!"
Ridfrek was puzzled. How should he act? The Wisperer got fed up once again and told to try and look beyond the fence which was incirceling the Garden. Ridfrek had never thought of that, cause he had thought that the stuff he could see beyond the Garden was just like the things you see in a theater, like a sid-scene or some kind of front. Not that he knew what that was, but that's how he perceived it. There seemed to be many options of what to do, but as Ridfrek had a conservative mind, he disliked change and tried to avoid it as long as possible.