It was a taste I wish I could forget. My brothers and I were in our basement playing video games together. Waiting for dinner to be ready. All the sudden we hear, “Dinner’s ready!” shouted from upstairs. We couldn’t be happier, or more starving, so we hobbled up the stairs to get food. My grandma, we call her Bubbie made dinner tonight, instead of the usual Mom or Dad cooking. We were super hungry so we eagerly plopped down to eat. My Bubbie displayed the plates down on the table. What I saw in front of me is very peculiar. I remember my kitchen was filled with the scent of this meat. After I opened the basement door and took a few steps into the kitchen I could smell it too. I looked around at the mess my Bubbie made in the kitchen, seeing pots and pans and measuring cups splayed across the kitchen counters. I took a seat at our dining table, sandwiched between my brothers, waiting to be served. My Bubbie walks over with her hands filled with plates, setting one in front of each of us.

Usually when my Bubbie cooks for us, she will just make a normal meal, like fish or chicken, nothing that I would question, like I did this time. Some assorted veggies, mashed potatoes and an unidentified meat. All the food steaming hot, I could see the vapor rising in the air. The carrots and peas, glistening with a buttery, greasy coating. The mashed potatoes looked like a jagged, fluffy, snow covered mountain range. But when I looked at the meat on the dish I see this brown, juicy and tender meat on the plate as well, which does not look appetizing whatsoever.

I say to my Bubbie, “What kind of meat is this?” she responded and said “It’s sheep meat. Try it.” I replied with an “Ok.” with a scared tone.

I immediately was disgusted. I was wondering in my head if she really thought I was going to eat cooked sheep. However, I felt bad so I just decided to try it and was planning on pretending that I liked it. Once I put it in my mouth I ejected the food out right way. My predictions were correct. The taste was putrid. I felt so bad, because my Bubbie spent a lot of time making dinner for us, but it was horrible. I remember it was the worst flavor I have ever tasted in my life. Not only did I spit it out but I ran to the bathroom to puke. The smell flowed heavily into the air and the foul taste of this mutton made me nauseous. The stench made my eyes water, to the point where the delicate tears were rolling down my cheeks. Once I reached the toilet to puke in I immediately regurgitated the disgusting meat. Clearly my body did not agree with me eating this. I puked out everything in my stomach. Luckily afterwards, I felt much better and less disgusted.

But you can bet that I was not about to finish the sheep. I felt so bad for reacting to the food my Bubbie cooked like that, but I couldn’t help it. I shuffled out of the bathroom, got cleaned up and returned to the dinner table.

After all that was over my Bubbie asked “What was so bad about it?” and I told her “That was the absolute grossest thing I’ve ever tried eating in my whole entire life.” she responded and said “Well your brothers seem to like it.”

So, I look over and see my brothers chowing down on this nasty meat. I do not understand how they could like it. Within a few seconds after this whole catastrophe their plates are licked clean. They must’ve either really liked the meat or they were too hungry to realize how bad it tasted. Either way, I couldn’t believe it.

I ask them, “Oh my god do you guys like the sheep?!” and in unison they reply, “Yes it is so good!” I was beyond confused.

It tasted worse than I imagined when my Bubbie told me what animal the meat was from. Anyways, I let them enjoy it before they could realize what had just happened because I didn’t want to ruin it for them. To this day, I’m still not exactly positive if they knew what they were eating at the time. Anyways, I felt really bad afterwards and decided to apologize to my Bubbie. I told her that I felt really bad for being so over dramatic and for not being considerate to the fact that she worked hard making us a dinner. She accepted my apology and I felt better. Since then, I’ve realized one; to never eat sheep again, and two; be grateful for the things that people have put their time and effort into for you.