Food adventures

Over the weekend I unintentionally ventured into the stranger areas of the culinary world. I went out to lunch with my family and decided on trying a mexican place near our house. As soon as I saw the menu, I recall that I had always wanted to try menudo and it seems like it's only served in restaurants on weekends so I gave it a go. I knew it was basically beef tripe and hominy in broth (I actually found out later that is also includes pig's feet). I never had a problem in any of those ingredients. Being chinese, I've had all parts of your basic farm raised animals and I even admit to liking the instestines and livers of the world. When the bowl was brought to me though, I had to rethink my position. Sure I like tripe, but a whole big bowl of nothing but? I also wondered if it would be enough for lunch. Again, just tripe? ... Well I am happy to report that it was quite good and more than filling. The spicy broth made me all warm and refreshed from the inside (many latin cultures believe that menudo is a great cure for hangovers). Who knew you can fill a whole stomach with another?

I ended up having dinner at my parents that night and I was greeted by something that even I thought was strange. It looked like a plateful of little beaks. I asked my mom what it was and she told me they were duck tongues...Why hadn't I seen this on Fear Factor yet? I had a second thought before I tried it, and was surprised to find it had a bone to it. I think it's actually the bottom beak that the tongue was attached to, but it was pretty weird. Stranger than the taste was the fact that the stuff is kind of expensive -- seven to eight dollars per pound. As my mom explained it so well, "Each duck only has one beak, you know." Well put, mom...