ÔÇ£Excuse me, youÔÇÖve got a little spleen in your┬áteeth.ÔÇØ

Living overseas in the military has provided our family with unique opportunities to learn about various European cultures first hand. We don’t have to imagine what it would be like to be European, we can simply live it. Sampling local foods is a necessary part of the experience, but many Americans shy away from this aspect of the adventure, preferring to stick with what is familiar.

The pervasiveness of McDonald’s provides a safe-haven for those whose taste buds are not so adventurous, and some only leave their flavor comfort zone for safe regional dishes such as Italian pizza margherita, French crepes filled with Nutella, chocolate covered Belgian waffles, Spanish churros, and German schnitzel.

While we have been known to duck into a European McDonald’s to hit the bathroom, my husband and I have encouraged (forced) our family to broaden our horizons and taste the foods of Europe. This philosophy has not been without its drawbacks; however, and we now have a host of interesting (nauseating) tales to tell from our experiences.

While living in the base hotel awaiting an offer for housing in Stuttgart, my meat-loving husband ordered the “wurst salat” envisioning a yummy chef salad with tasty sausage pieces over fresh mixed greens. What he got was essentially devoid of vegetables, unless you count the copious amount of sliced raw onions, which were tossed with cold julienned meat that looked similar to baloney or the inside of a hot dog.

Last spring off the coast of Spain’s Costa Brava, I ordered fish at a restaurant overlooking the azure blue Mediterranean Sea. As the waiter set the dish before me, I could almost hear Billy the Big Mouth Bass singing “Take Me to the River” as the fish stared at me from the plate.

On a trip last fall to Berchtesgaden, one of our guests ordered the “Leberknodelsuppe” because it was so fun to say. We all giggled and repeated the tongue-twisting word until a bowl of the stuff was presented to the table. A grayish-brown dumpling sat in a hot bath of broth, and although the color looked a bit off, we kept an open mind. Cutting into the doughy ball, its uniquely pungent aroma clued us in on what should have been obvious from the start ÔÇô “leber” is liver, and this little dumpling was full of that particularly unpopular organ meat.

No matter how touristy, one cannot escape getting caught up in the festive atmosphere at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, and part of the experience is ordering the giant liter of beer and a heaping helping of hearty Bavarian food. Swinging my stein to and fro, I thought nothing of ordering “Schweinshaxe,” a Bavarian specialty. Not realizing I was getting a roasted pig’s knuckle, I had to put forth significant effort to extract the delicious morsels of pork that were tangled among cartilage, skin and bone.

On a daytrip to Strasbourg, France, our family stopped at an outdoor restaurant on a lovely cobblestone square. Interested in the mix of German and French cultures, I ordered “S├╗rkr├╗t Royale,” an Alsatian sauerkraut dish.

Twenty minutes later, I was presented with a giant, steaming heap of sauerkraut, with at least seven different varieties of pork, potatoes, onions and dumplings nested among its pickled strands. Wursts and slices of pork loin were among the few meats I could recognize, but the rest of the pieces were unidentifiable slabs intertwined with plentiful amounts of fat and sinew. Despite my initial squeamishness over the gelatinous pieces of fat, the scent of bacon and white wine gave me the courage to give it a try, and I found it to be quite a delectable treat.

The list goes on, and despite the queasiness that springs forth when we recall these culinary tales, we keep trying. Be it Belgian-style mussels in creamy beer broth, spicy Croatian cevapi, or hearty Portuguese sopas, every delicious regional dish we stumble upon has made it worth every fish head, hunk of fat and organ meat that made its way to our table. So, Buen Provecho, Smacznego, and Bon Appetit! But don’t forget to pack the Alka Seltzer, just in case.