Organ Donors

image borrowed from elizabethdownie.blogspot.com

Organ Donors

“I could be considered an organ donor, the way

I give up my heart.”--Anonymous.

Be of brave heart, folks--

consume new & strange foods for

curiosity.

When one craves

expansion of their food horizons,

shocking their palette,

after a lifetime

of white bread, barbecue, hot dogs, hamburgers, 

sausage & bacon--all cholesterol-ridden acceptable

sources of wondrous tastes; choosing

not to investigate what constitutes our frankfurters

or how much sawdust or vegetable fillers

are laced into our cherished fat-laden ground beef--

                                           we can also choose to be brave, either

                                  through travel, or just fun forays into foreign

                          food restaurants in our neighborhood, gulping down

                 strange foods, both unfamiliar & exciting, or not.

I tend to be a very finicky eater, & I have never really enjoyed

                the culinary adventures that some of the rambunctious cooks

                          in my family have subjected me to;    tongue & cucumber

                                    finger sandwiches, roasted whole beef brain or heart

served as an entree, steaming rancid innards, like liver or kidneys, smothered 

in onions, pork-blood stew, peach mutton chops, blood sausage & such.

                What I’ve discovered on my own culinary safaris

                is that there are three dishes, a demonic trinity of

                foods that I just revile, simply cannot stomach--

three cultural contrivances that originated as

a practical & inexpensive source of protein

for the poor,

     the masses,

     the peasants and               I understand the necessity for the creative

                           development of such foods, & the application of

                           curry, chilis, onions, & garlic to mask the nasty

                                                stench & taste of them.

Offender number one would be Korean Kimchi, kind of an Asian sauerkraut,

that nearly makes me pass out just being in its presence. It is made up

from some good vegetables & it might be great if served fresh; stuff like

bok choy, daiken radishes, ginger, chilis, sea salt, cloves of garlic, &

red pepper powders, but damn, after it is mixed up, folks find it necessary

to let it ripen & rot for at least a week, sometimes even burying it to 

augment the fermentation--then when it is ready, you can add pork & more 

spices to it. At the end of one of the recipes was the statement, “When 

prepared properly, it can be delicious.”

Next up on my gut-churning list is the wonderful Mexican & Filipino

stew called Menudo, made from tripe & offal--the stomach linings of 

ruminant animals, with ground kidneys & liver. It is often made from the

honeycomb tripe, a cow’s second stomach. Come on, you can boil. broil,

braise or bake it, & it still retains a pock-marked spongy texture that while

chewing it reminds me of ingesting a rubber inner-tube; pungent & cringe-

worthy, it needs to be mixed with a lot of hominy & topped with strong spices.

It is said to be a cure for a hangover. We are instructed post-recipe that

it requires “a certain amount of care in order to be prepared properly.”

Last in line in this unholy less-than-kosher trio of triumvirate nastiness

is a celebrated Soul Food--Chitterlings, or as they refer to it down South,

chitlins, created from a pig’s small intestines; a dish common to most

pork eating cultures, & oddly to dog eating cultures as well. You can boil

it, batter it & deep-fry it, then mix it into some dirty spicy rice. It is recom-

mended to serve it slathered in hot sauce with some kind of strong liquor. 

It has “a very unpleasant oder when it is cooking.”

The bottom line for

me, once I try a new food--

love it or hate it.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Poetics

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