title: Does This Taste Funny?: A Half-Baked Look at Food and Foodies
author:  Michael Dane 
description: Michael Dane has successfully avoided real work for most of his adult life. He has been a writer since fourth grade, when his mom read his first story and said, "You should be a writer." Instead, he did standup comedy, appearing regularly at the Comedy Store in Hollywood. He's also performed on a frozen lake for the opening of ice-fishing season, at a synagogue for Purim, and at the Oxnard Strawberry Festival. Surprisingly, none of those gigs led to an HBO special. Michael Dane lives in Minneapolis now, where he has decided his mom was probably right. Not for nothing, he also makes a killer meatloaf.
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  For Whitney, Henny, Liza and Steph, my American roommates.
  
  
  
  
  
  You made my first year at the University of Edinburgh so fun. I had the best
  time with you guys.
  
  
  
  
  
  Thanks for the memories. And the funny photos. Those are definitely keepers…
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  “Did you go food shopping yet? Is the food expensive? Do you understand what
  half of it is?”
  
  
  
  
  
  I swallowed my laughter. “Mom, I’m in Scotland, not the Amazon.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I know but they eat things we wouldn’t dare eat.”
  
  
  
  
  
  She sounded so horrified I couldn’t help my dry retort. “They’re not
  cannibals.”
  
  
  
  
  
  A spray of soda shot past my eyeline and I twisted to see my best friend
  Claudia choking on Diet Coke as she listened to my side of the conversation.
  We were sitting in the kitchen of our student apartment, our butts on the
  comfortable, but still weird, waiting room chairs that had be