I was on the road this past week in Grand Rapids, MI working with a client. Paul, my business partner, and I decided to go to dinner and ended up at a local spot downtown called The BOB (Big Old Building). It’s sort of a swanky food court: the building is full of nightclubs and mid-range restaurants. We ate at a bistro called Bobarino’s. I had a grilled tuna panini.
Paul was more adventurous: he was interested in the beef kabobs. He asked our server what she thought of the dish and its portion size, to which she replied:
It’s big! Some folks have said it looks like a rat on a skewer. It will fill you up.
Of course, with a description like that, how could anyone say no? Paul didn’t and off the server went.
15 minutes later our meals arrived. Mine came with your standard issue “watch your fingers; the plate is hot” presentation. Paul’s on the other hand did not. The rat came on a stainless steel contraption the likes of which I’ve never seen before. At that point, I really felt the pain of my BlackBerry addiction since it doesn’t have a camera. So you’ll have to just live with a text description.
Imagine a slightly curved 2 foot long steel rod with a hook on one end and a large loop at the other. The loop connects to the rod at a right angle such that it provides a base for the rod and hook so they can stand vertically. On the loop base sat a plate of veggies and basmati rice and suspended from the hook was a long skewer impaling the so called rat, dripping juice down onto the plate. Nice visual, eh? Paul grinned at me and proceeded to consume the rat using his fork and a gigantic steak knife like those you get at Outback.
It was absolutely primeval. Nonetheless, a decent restaurant. Good beer. Order the seasonal. The higher alcohol content is sure to kill anything that survived the rat kabob prep and high heat cooking.
I joined 
