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it.
    Nainai looked down at her plate and didn't say anything. I felt I had to do something. I helped myself to a huge serving of the jellyfish.
    “I bet some of the things we eat must seem really gross to people in other countries,” I said. “Hey, we should have a contest! Let's go around the table, and each person has to think of the grossest thing that gets eaten by people.”
    There was a silence as we all thought furiously. Ron raised his hand first. “The French eat snails, slathered with butter and garlic.”
    “Not bad, Ron,” said Dad. “Snails are gross enough, but snails with butter and garlic get even more points.”
    Mom was next. “Let's see … Australian aborigines eat larvae. It's an important source of protein out in the bush.” She had gone to a conference in Sydney, Australia, last year.
    “What's larvae?” I asked.
    “They're worms,” said Ron, grinning.
    I remembered that when I had baby shrimp in a salad for the first time, they looked a lot like worms, and I refused to eat them. Dad didn't try to force me, but anothertime he served prawns, which were just bigger shrimp. I was okay with them, and after that he served smaller and smaller prawns until I got used to the idea of eating the tiny, wormlike baby shrimp. But I had to admit that real worms were a different story.
    Ron seemed to be enjoying my discomfort. “Insects go through a larva stage before they go into cocoons and become fully adult.” He turned to Mom. “Your larvae beat my snails.”
    “We eat fried grasshoppers in China,” said Dad. “Those are adult insects. They're nice and crunchy, and they taste good with a dash of soy sauce.”
    We couldn't decide whether larvae got more points than adult insects, like grasshoppers. In the end we voted for larvae as being more gross.
    “Back in Scotland, I always began my day with blood sausages,” contributed Grandpa.
    “Yech!” I cried. “What are blood sausages?” “They're sausages made with pig's blood,” said Grandma. “Very nourishing they are, too, especially for children who are sickly.”
    “I don't think you deserve lots of points, Mother,” Momtold Grandma. “Blood sausages sound bad, but they don't actually look bloody.”
    It was my turn, and I thought hard. I finally came up with something my friend Amanda had told me. “In Japan they eat something called natto. That's rotted soybeans. They're kind of slimy, with strings that are like snot from your nose. If you put some natto in your mouth, the sticky strings flop all over your chin.”
    I looked around at the disgust on everybody's face and thought I had won the contest for sure.
    But Grandpa wasn't giving up. “Nothing can beat haggis!”
    I knew about haggis, and I had to admit that Grandpa had a winner there.
    “Oh, come on,” said Mom. “When did we last have haggis—really?”
    “I made it for Robert Burns Day only last year,” Grandma said proudly.
    “What is haggis?” asked Nainai.
    “You take a sheep's stomach and fill it with a mixture of sheep innards, oatmeal, suet, and spices,” said Grandma.“Then you cook it for a few hours until everything is soft and mushy. You eat it with a wee dram of whisky, and there's nothing like it!”
    “There's nothing like it, even without the wee dram of whisky,” muttered Mom. I got the feeling that she wasn't quite as crazy about haggis as Grandpa and Grandma.
    “Looks like haggis is the winner,” said Dad.
    But Ron wasn't giving up. “Hey, how about lutefisk?”
    Lutefisk is a Norwegian dish, and it's made with salted cod. There are lots of Norwegians in Seattle, so we locals know all about it. Dad had to explain what it was to Grandpa, Grandma, and Nainai, who were from out of town. “You soak salted cod in lye for a long time, until it's nice and soft. So it has a strong taste of baking soda.”
    Mom grinned and added, “In texture, lutefisk is very much like a garden slug.”
    We decided to give the most points to lutefisk, although