Some of the Things that I Put into my Mouth

To begin; it is not my purpose to proselytize and encourage anyone to eat anything.

I have always been somewhat of an adventurer in culinary pursuits. At about age two, I became known as junebug because I ate one (I do not, thankfully, remember this). My nanny at the time confirmed this. One of my first adventures were raw oysters. I had seen my dad eat these but never asked for one. When I was about to become an intern, a hospital threw a bunch of us a beer fest. They had a guy opening oysters like a magician, and after a few glasses of beer, I tried one. Wonderful! Later on, I lived in a place where a guy who owned a seafood market and restaurant used to bring oysters back from New Orleans each week. One could get them in the shell to take home and shuck. Both my children were quite young and would stand with me at the sink, while I shucked away. My son loves them to this day. I think my daughter merely ate them to please me. A few years later, we were in a hotel coffee shop in Atlanta, and my son (he was about 8 years old) ordered a dozen on the half shell. The waitress asked if he would eat them, and when I said that he did at home, she asked if she could come back and watch. He is tired of hearing about that, but he can skip that part.

Some years later, I had a colleague who always had a game supper at his house once a year. That's where I was exposed to chitlins and prairie oysters. For those uninitiated, chitlins are a southern delicacy of boiled hog intestines that are battered and deep fried. Prairie oysters are the gonads of hogs or sheep (maybe other animals too) that are cut up, battered, and deep fried. They taste much like chicken nuggets and are yummy. This same game supper used to feature tomato gravy with venison heart in it. Wonderful over a biscuit.

In South Georgia, hunting rattlesnakes is a sport. One of the ladies in our office had a boyfriend who did this. Dressed and frozen, she would bring some to me. I have had it fried, but it tends to be dry. If the snake is boiled (it is VERY odifirous), the meat comes off easily and combined with sour cream and some black pepper, it makes a great dip. I have seen folks who wouldn't eat snake on a bet, scarf this stuff down and ask for the recipe.

After arriving in CH, I tried horse. It is a healthy red meat with almost no fat in it. My Godson's uncle used to be a horse butcher, so we had a ready source. It used to be that horse was not sold except in special markets. Nowadays, one can buy it in any meat or grocery market. It comes in several cuts. You can also buy foal, which is a bit more expensive and like veal would be. Horse is a dish for celebrations. Thinly sliced, it makes a great meat fondue, and a nice inch and one half fillet, cooked on the grill, and topped with some garlic butter will make a bulldog break its chain. My son enjoys horse (Pferd in German), but his wife is horrified when he neighs between bites.

Many years ago, I wanted to see how tripe tasted. Tripe is the lining of beef stomach. In the USA, it isn't commonly sold, or at least I could never find it. I did learn that a Campbell's soup called Philadelphia Pepper Pot contained tripe. I bought some and tried it. It was like eating pure gristle and did not seem to be pleasing on the tongue. I ate no more. Then, some time ago, I was with a friend at a mountain restaurant, when he noted with pleasure that Kuttlen (tripe) was on the menu. He said he did not get that at home because his wife thought that it contained too much cholesterol. He ordered it. The dish looked really good. Strips of tripe, cooked soft, and in a tomato sauce. I asked for, and received a taste. It was delicious! Since then, I have cooked it Napoli style in a pressure cooker. It has a tomato sauce, and I believe there is a recipe for it in The Joy of Cooking. One of Barbara's friends had me over for a Kuttlen lunch, and hers was like mine but with a bit of onion and melted cheese on top.

One of the things that I also enjoy is smoked tongue. While looking for it in the cold cuts section of our grocery, I came onto something called Euter. It looked a bit like tongue, so I bought it. I learned that Euter is German for udder. It must not be a big seller because I have never seen it again. It was nice on a cracker with a little mustard.

Eating is a learned event guided by what we see as we grow and experiment. Each group of people have built in likes and dislikes governed in large part, by our social mores.

The one thing that I cannot abide is boiled okra. My dad and mother ate it, but most of mine ended up in the toilet. I later learned to like it fried, pickled, and (the best), in an African curry.