Lamb, revisiting my vegetarian past, and moving on with a mouthful of goodness.

Our group is embarking upon a weekend excursion in just a few minutes, during which it is planned that we will go to a wine tasting and a raw oyster farm. I'm worried about surviving the latter of the two, so I've decided to post on my favorite meal discovered thus yet, Lamb and Potatoes.

Quick background story. When I was but a wee child, I was a vegetarian for an impressive amount of time. Why? You wonder. Because I was fortunate enough to visit Prairie Farms, a local petting zoo in which I discovered my love for lambs, and Nyros Gyros in the same day. I found out my Gyro was lamb halfway into the meal and sh*t got real, quite quickly. Since then I've returned to the meat side, but still never eat lamb. This trip has changed that.

Our first excursion we drove up into the mountains for an hour, found the border of Bosnia, entered the restaurant that was practically straddling it, and what did they bring me? Lamb. I was cautious and wary, but the lamb has apparently been slow roasted all day. This method of cooking is a Croatian tradition. The slow roasting and perfect combination of spices both tenderized the meat and made it incredibly salty. Once I got the song from Lambchop's Play Along out of my head, I was in heaven. The lamb was truly divine, and it helped that they just kept bringing out heaping platters of it.

The dish that accompanied the lamb was even more spectacular and quite surprising. Our group took a vote and the potatoes won dish of the meal. Again, the potatoes are slow roasted with a couple of spices and onions ALL DAY. A great deal of salt must have been added yet again, because they were salty, but the heavy glaze that coated them and was a result of their slow roasting countered the salty with savory.

Our group has been served this exact lunch twice and we've been happy every time. The Lamb and Potatoes meal is heavy, savory, salty, filling. For me, these characteristics qualify the meal as comfort food. Why? I'm not sure, that question hasn't yet been answered for me, and other group members are a little perplexed too. I would guess it's because this meal doesn't fall far from our "meat and potatoes" American attitude. Of course American food is really just made up of the cuisine of many other places, but the "meat and potatoes" idea is one we have really latched onto. All I know is that  I am full and happy at the end of each lunch, but may not be so happy after trying raw oysters today. Enough reminiscing about the past DELICIOUS meals of Croatia, on to wetter, slimier and scarier things.