So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Harp]

Not too long ago, domestic animals have been valuable, not ordinary protein sources here and so the waste has been kept least possible so brain, blood and offal dishes are quite widespread specialties at this end.
In Württemberg it’s brain soup for example, brain sausages in the northern half, blood soups, blood grits with buckwheat and blood sausages... all over the country.
Here in the west you still often get cured tongue as cold cuts at the butcher´s and in Bavaria still ground lungs, udders in a whole...
And I would estimate monkeys to be just very common domestic animals in Asia...

In Frankfurt am Main its Kentucky Fried Chicken; Trysa, cheeseburger and fries; Munich, ham and eggs.
I once asked for a particular waitress-to serve my meal-because she was so lovely.
The proprietor boss shook his head afterward, muttering Amerikaner.

When it came to soup, my maternal grandmother was old school Irish. I recall ox tails, pig feet, neck bones
and such tossed splash into large bubbling pots. I occasionally buy neck bones if the price is right.
The mom and pop grocer in the hood closed and the larger supermarket chain a mile distant charges
double for the same pack. I typically toss the bones in with a pork roast, then knife the meat out.
But overpriced neck bone hardly seems worth the effort. I like your suggest for pig feet with pea soup.
My plebeian palate is simple, basic ingredients, but I am open to some culinary experimentation.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
I’m big on smoked ham hocks and beans, with onion, celery, carrots, etc. Real tasty.

Ox tails are very flavorful as well. But, as you alluded, these foods were once deemed poor people fare, and were priced accordingly. No more, alas.

I don’t even want to recall what I paid for a chuck roast yesterday. But the lovely missus wanted a pot roast so that’s what she got. A quick calculation of the cost of the ingredients in that Dutch oven had me understanding why the “value” menus at the fast food chains are so popular. It really is cheaper to eat that way. Still, as a portion of our income, food is considerably less expensive now that it has been in my memory.

My Dear Old Ma, a child of the Depression, lived her early years alongside a creek that provided water for the family’s large vegetable garden. Her dad routinely shot rabbits, and not for sport. He took only the good shots, because ammunition cost money.

 

[Turnip]

In Frankfurt am Main its Kentucky Fried Chicken; Trysa, cheeseburger and fries; Munich, ham and eggs.

...

If you prefer not to leave the station quarter that’s certainly true...

 

[Turnip]

Yeeaaahhhh...you can have mine.

No, thanks, cannibalism is not that rather mine...

 

[LizzieMaine]

I had to eat clams and lobster as a kid until they came out of my ears, because you always knew somebody had some to get rid of. Can take clams, but I'll only touch lobster if I have to and somebody else is paying for it.

 

[Harp]

^^^^
I’m big on smoked ham hocks and beans, with onion, celery, carrots, etc. Real tasty.

Ox tails are very flavorful as well. But, as you alluded, these foods were once deemed poor people fare, and were priced accordingly. No more, alas.

I don’t even want to recall what I paid for a chuck roast yesterday. But the lovely missus wanted a pot roast so that’s what she got. A quick calculation of the cost of the ingredients in that Dutch oven had me understanding why the “value” menus at the fast food chains are so popular. It really is cheaper to eat that way. Still, as a portion of our income, food is considerably less expensive now that it has been in my memory.

My Dear Old Ma, a child of the Depression, lived her early years alongside a creek that provided water for the family’s large vegetable garden. Her dad routinely shot rabbits, and not for sport. He took only the good shots, because ammunition cost money.

Every once in a while I get a chuck roast and do an Irish stew with can gravy, vegies. On a cold day, its great.
Ground turkey makes fantastic meatloaf, tomato sauce, oatmeal, egg, and any such available ingredient.
I occasionally see a rail road track walking hunter, all decked out in appropriate clothing and license
hung on back, shotgun at port arms and looking for Bugs Bunny. I had rabbit, snake, and other stuff
in the Army but am not so ambitious now. Hot dogs, sandwich meat, on the go bachelor lifestyle meals
are usual fare, but tuna casserole and can salmon cakes pop up.

 

[Harp]

I had to eat clams and lobster as a kid until they came out of my ears, because you always knew somebody had some to get rid of. Can take clams, but I'll only touch lobster if I have to and somebody else is paying for it.

I once strolled inside the Red Lobster on Ontario Street behind a well dressed gentleman,
and the lobster aquarium sited by the front entrance had a lobster that deliberately splashed
him with a solid claw swing. Little rubber band wrapped claws. And that sonuvabitch was lying dead
on a platter with butter lickety split.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

By coincidence, The Temple of Doom was re-run on one of our TV channels last night. Monkey brains, I'm with poor Kate Capshaw, I think I would pass out too.
View attachment 299650

I remember what she said when offered the monkey ... "No thanks, I had brains for lunch." That is a really funny line in context.

 

[Edward]

I remember what she said when offered the monkey ... "No thanks, I had brains for lunch." That is a really funny line in context.

Bugs - "I had bugs for lunch".... if memory serves, it's the monkey brains she just faints at. Lot of fun the whole sequence. I know a lot of folks in more recent years have had issues with it, though my interpretation was always that the humour was at the expense of the privileged Westerner... that point is made more forcefully, tough, in an earlier scene - "This is more food than these people see in a week" / "You're embarrassing me, and you're insulting them"....

Funny the things that taste great when you try them first. I'm eternally grateful that as a child I ate and enjoyed black pudding and haggis before being put off by the usual 'ick' factor. In Beijing, I've discovered I rather enjoyed donkey (like less fibrous, rather good roast beef) and pig's trotter (wonderfully salty, liked good bacon but the texture of beef). Duck hearts turned out to be nicer than I expected, though I have to admit I've had my own "bugs for lunch" moments - I can't do the duck or chicken feet. I also once ordered a chicken which I enjoyed immensely, but I had to drape a tissue over its face. Morally comfortable with my place in the food chain I may be, but I don't care to have an animal watch me eat it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was a time when tongue sandwiches were very much the thing, and I was curious about trying one until, during my time working in a deli, I opened a five gallon pail full of disembodied cow tongues and saw them lallllllllling up at me from the brine. Kinda put me off the idea.

As a little kid, however, I was very fond of heart, and used to enjoy frightening little boys who bothered me at lunch by telling them exactly what was in my sandwich.

 

[Tiki Tom]

I grew up eating all that stuff. In part because my parents were immigrants and in part simply because they were trying to stretch every dime. There were five children to feed. Anyway, pigs feet and sauerkraut? check! Cow tongue with mustard? Check! Tripe soup? Check! Cow brain? Check! (Not my favorite, I didn’t like the texture.) Heart? Of course: in a stew. Horse meat? Check! Blood sausage? Yes. Now I’m married to a nice middle class white bread eating gal. So none of that stuff is allowed in the house. Not even liver! Not that I’m craving it or anything... it kind of reminds me of my less than glamorous upbringing. But I do marvel at how my mom could feed so many people on my dad’s less than monumental paycheck. On the other hand, the experience has bought me goodwill on occasion; when I didn’t flinch from eating fried grasshoppers with the locals in one locale... or —-when a friend didn’t realize what she had ordered—- I happily ate her plate of Couilles de Mouton and earned the respect (and gratitude I suspect) of the mom and pop who ran the place. They wound up sharing a carafe of wine with us. Fun! Well worth it!

 

[Harp]

Morally comfortable with my place in the food chain I may be.

I understand my place as USDA Prime beef inside the food chain.
A tiger once charged when I had point-I threw him a C-rat date nut roll, he caught it single paw,
flipped the can open with a nail, scarfed it down. Then he fell to his knees choking, paws at his throat.
He lay on his back and said, "what the hell, thought you guys were legs."
I told him we were Special Forces this far north, and he said "aw f..k it."
Then I whipped out my notepad and read him some of my poetry. Iambic pentameter and dactylic hexameter
right between the eyes. He pawed the air, "Stop, stop."
I finished him off by reciting sweet Elizabeth Barrett Browning from memory, Sonnets From the Portuguese.
Our Kit Carson offered to machete the head, bag the skull, and carry to the choppers. He had an uncle
in Saigon who could tax the head. Kit didn't make the bird. And I therefore lost my trophy.

 

[Hercule]

My wife used to make fun of me because every time I went home and indulged in the comfort food of my childhood it seemed to all be viscera of one kind or another.

After college I helped a former professor (an old German gentleman) do some house painting. My reward? Slices of tongue and sharing a warm beer.

 

[Turnip]

He meant it just good with you, cold beer is so bad for the stomach...

In older days beer warmers have been quite common pub accessories here, just like the huge glass of hard boiled eggs in brine on the counter.

 

[Hercule]

He meant it just good with you, cold beer is so bad for the stomach...

In older days beer warmers have been quite common pub accessories here, just like the huge glass of hard boiled eggs in brine on the counter.

I was quite keen to have the tongue actually, as I had never had it before. I don't mind warm beer at all,. especially if its good beer. Cold destroys flavor when it comes to beer. But if its the thin domestic brand swill, then the colder the better. Not that I taste it. That beer is meant to be chugged! Ah memories of my youth, when it was quantity over quality. Anymore I prefer wine.

 

[tonyb]

Bugs - "I had bugs for lunch".... if memory serves, it's the monkey brains she just faints at. Lot of fun the whole sequence. I know a lot of folks in more recent years have had issues with it, though my interpretation was always that the humour was at the expense of the privileged Westerner... that point is made more forcefully, tough, in an earlier scene - "This is more food than these people see in a week" / "You're embarrassing me, and you're insulting them"....

Funny the things that taste great when you try them first. I'm eternally grateful that as a child I ate and enjoyed black pudding and haggis before being put off by the usual 'ick' factor. In Beijing, I've discovered I rather enjoyed donkey (like less fibrous, rather good roast beef) and pig's trotter (wonderfully salty, liked good bacon but the texture of beef). Duck hearts turned out to be nicer than I expected, though I have to admit I've had my own "bugs for lunch" moments - I can't do the duck or chicken feet. I also once ordered a chicken which I enjoyed immensely, but I had to drape a tissue over its face. Morally comfortable with my place in the food chain I may be, but I don't care to have an animal watch me eat it.

Chicken feet ain’t bad. Had ’em at dim sum on a few occasions. Never had the duck webs, although I’m not indisposed to trying it.

As to foods with faces ...

Duck is among my favorite foods. Just love it, really, the fattier the better. There’s no real Chinatown here, but there is a sort of pan-Asian retail district a couple miles from our house, where there’s a hole-in-the-wall Cantonese joint with ducks and chickens and slabs of pork hanging in the cases. I fairly frequently buy a whole duck, which the proprietress, a not-young immigrant woman, chops into manageable pieces with her cleaver. The first couple-three times I ordered a duck she said, “You want head?”

I got a kick out of that. But now I’m a regular so she grabs a duck as I walk through the door.

EDIT: Should some smartass be tempted to make the obvious observation in response to the old gal’s offer, I’d advise that person to be mindful of that cleaver.

 

[tonyb]

There was a time when tongue sandwiches were very much the thing, and I was curious about trying one until, during my time working in a deli, I opened a five gallon pail full of disembodied cow tongues and saw them lallllllllling up at me from the brine. Kinda put me off the idea.

As a little kid, however, I was very fond of heart, and used to enjoy frightening little boys who bothered me at lunch by telling them exactly what was in my sandwich.

When I was in third grade (it must’ve been) I got sick at school in the afternoon, after having had a liver wurst sandwich for lunch. The little illness had me missing my weekly after-school trip to the bowling alley. The experience put me off liver wurst for years afterwards.

 

[Edward]

When I was in third grade (it must’ve been) I got sick at school in the afternoon, after having had a liver wurst sandwich for lunch. The little illness had me missing my weekly after-school trip to the bowling alley. The experience put me off liver wurst for years afterwards.

Funny how that works in a kid's mind, isn't it? In Ireland back in the seventies we had a product called Cremola Foam. Small tub, similar to something you might get medical salts in. Powdered, sweetened stuff that when you mixed with water it created a somewhat fizzy, flavoured soft drink. Cracking stuff - especially if you naughtily mixed it with lemonade that was already fizzy. The last thing I consumed before the onset of what I now know to have been gastroenteritis in Spring 1978 was "Yellow" (lemon flavour) Cremola Foam. I drank all the others, but for years I refused the yellow one, believing sincerely that's what had made me ill.

(Interestingly, according to Wikipedia it's a Scottish product - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamola_Foam - must have been one that found a big export market to Ireland. Never realised that before. Interesting, as in those days there was a lot of stuff on sale in Britain that never made it to Northern Ireland - I remember when Irn Bru and Tizer were drinks we only ever had on holiday. Sprite too - well into the nineties. Probably a side-effect of our little local 'issues' in Northern Ireland in those days.)

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Bugs - "I had bugs for lunch".... if memory serves, it's the monkey brains she just faints at.

"Bugs" it was.

 

[Trenchfriend]

A little thing, I like to report.
Got my very first professional toothcleaning, today. Did it not in my usual dentists office, but in my smalltown, too. Really fair price, much more trustworthy!

The sequence:
1. Ultrasonic scaling
2. Airflow (water-powder jet) debridement
3. Interdental cleansing
4. Polishing with mint tasting paste
5. Strengthening with bubbly jelly with flouride

Lasted more than an hour, because there was of course much to do. Afterwards, my face was and is actually not noteworthy hurting!
I can now tell other, it's a much less hurting procedure than you think!! No need to be frightened.