I received an email from Stephanie Cronk-- a senior at Verrado High School in Buckeye, Arizona-- earlier this year. She's in that simultaneously stressful and exciting college application process, and decided to write about Bizarre Foods in one of her essays. So cool! I've posted the essay below-- think she's a shoe-in? Yep, me too.

If ever you get the chance to visit my home, the only house gift I’d ask you to bring is an open mind and an empty stomach. You would be entering a household influenced by the Spanish culture; you’d see paintings by famous Spanish artists like Francisco de Goya and replicas of swords of prominent medieval Spanish Kings, you’d hear bits of Castilian Spanish, and you’d feel the freshness and immaculateness my mother works so hard to inspire. Perhaps the most interesting of all, you would taste authentic Spanish food. I am notorious for introducing guests to the uncommon and uncanny foods my mother imports from her home country of Spain. This means you’d be trying anchovy-stuffed olives, pickled octopus, sardines in olive oil, and pate, a paste made of duck liver. Some quiver at the mention of the ingredients but my smooth talk, and occasional force, compels everyone to taste what they’ve been missing.

Like my guests, I too have had my fair share of foreign delicacies. I’ve tried beef tongue tacos, roasted chicken heart and chicken feet, snails sautéed in tomato sauce, every type of seafood; percebes and clams being my favorite, and several different types of raw, cooked, or even fermented fish, sometimes with their eggs as a side dish. Needless to say, food is something that rarely intimidates me; on the contrary, it allows me to reveal my spontaneous nature.

When I first watched “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern,” I finally felt what my guests did. For the first time, my stomach started to squirm and turn at the sight of some of the dishes Andrew Zimmern tasted.

The most memorable episode I watched was set in Morocco. By the end of the episode Andrew Zimmern had eaten all the random parts of a lamb; like the eyes, a poached calf’s brain, and pigeon pie. What made the episode even more outlandish was its location. My stomach could have handled the strange dishes if they were prepared in an upscale restaurant, but some of these dishes were prepared locally at an outdoor food market. I quickly learned that in Morocco, censorship is a petty thing; the entire carcass of the animal you were going to eat was within feet of you while it was being prepared. I commend Andrew Zimmern for eating the brain of a lamb after watching its skin being peeled away from its skull. The Moroccan episode reminded me that if I were to be as fearless as I thought, I would have to further expand my culinary horizon.

Besides humbling the belief that I am completely intrepid of cuisine, “Bizarre Foods” also offers more insight to my love of traveling. After watching Andrew Zimmern interact with numerous different cultures, I’ve decided I too want the same opportunities.

Another one of my favorite episodes takes place in Ecuador. This episode doesn’t intrigue me so much for its cuisine (my emotional link to the guinea pig dish was too much to bear) but for the cultural ritual that Andrew Zimmern takes part in. Zimmern went to a witch doctor so he could have all his “evil spirits” removed from his body. He was stripped down only to have homemade hootch spit all over him, poisonous shrubs and guinea pig fur rubbed all over his body, and finally, to have fire coughed on him. Besides laughing hysterically at the awkwardness of the situation, I was in awe. How exciting a culture!

I’ve realized that “Bizarre Foods” has not only increased my culinary IQ but also my cultural IQ. Before every episode I watch, my anticipation builds and I wonder what beautiful landscape I’ll see, or what intense journey I’ll witness. The show has made me realize that I not only want to see the world and interact with all of its inhabitants, but I also want to share it. As much as I love my Spanish heritage, I don’t want to be limited or defined by it. So eventually when I have a household of my own, you’ll be seeing Australian aborigine paintings and Italian sculptures, hearing a medley of different languages, tasting the cuisine of India, and feeling as if you experienced the world in one single visit.