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Talking Balut

I met a few old friends for dinner while passing through their town recently. They all still live and work there and I don't anymore. We used to be work friends - a concept that is fading out these days with hybrid and remote work being more norm than exception for many. H has brought her mentee along - a young woman only a few years out of college. C had recently become a homeowner and we celebrated her. Conversation at some point turned to foods in a person's culture that the rest of the world would consider weird. It started with relatively innocuous things like eating fish head and goat brains but once folks had warmed up to the idea of sharing stories, it got a lot more interesting. 

C was hesitant to open up at first being so much younger than the rest of us but at some point she had embolden herself enough to talk about one of her favorite foods - balut. She was pleasantly surprised everyone took it in stride and it was not so scary after all. C was way more relaxed around us for the rest of the evening and seemed to have a fun time in company of strange older women with whom she had very little in common. My thoughts turned to my baby and I wished she would have such experiences too - of going a bit out of her comfort zone and experiencing a safe and comforting world and strangers who will some day become her friends.

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