I'm trying to find a positive here. I snapped this shot in the old quarter in a lane called Phat Loc. The irony is that this blue basket full of animal internals was resting directly opposite a tofu stall, not that this would be an odd juxtaposition for the locals. However, I can just picture the vegetarian, desperate to find some meat-free street tucker, striking the jackpot with the tofu and then stumbling into this grey nightmare.
I wasn't all that enamoured of it myself. Fully aware that I've chewed and swallowed the odd thin slice of heart and liver sparks a mad volley of questions in my head. Was this what I ate? Why does it have to be grey? Why can't it be dyed a more eater-friendly shade? If you cook anything long enough, will it always end up grey? Why do the parts that keep a body functioning look so bloody terrible? Which of these street food eateries that I frequent regularly was going to take ownership of these bird spare parts?
Best not to know that answer. I took off. Didn't look back! Couldn't see me for dust!
The main problem with offal for westerners is the visual trip. If we blind tasted all these things - so long as they're coooked well - they're absolutely scrummy, esp. heart and liver. Also, in Vietnamese cooking they're still look like what they are. Hide them inside a terrine, sausage, pie, wotever and it starts to sound more appetising. The only ones that really put me are the 'crunchy' ones, the pipes and the tubes of the offal world.
Posted by: pieman | 22 March 2006 at 08:46 AM
... and then of course there's the texture. It's hard to hide the powdery lozenge of livers composition and nothing reveals itself faster than an obliquely placed kidney in a otherwise steak pie. Hiding it may get it inside your mouth but as soon as your mind starts its process it gets harder getting it over the tongue. I was once given a meal of unfamiliar composition that had me doubting. I asked of my companion what it might be. In a struggling fashion he told me "it pig's...baby...ummm...house". Ah! Pigs baby house yummm. As the first bite wasn't absolutely scrummy this new information didn't help get me through any more of that meal. Some foods are just there for famine.
Posted by: Mark | 22 March 2006 at 10:01 AM
lolz......thank god i'm ok with all the offals.....
Posted by: foodcrazee | 22 March 2006 at 05:08 PM
It's definitely the look and the feel, the cultural difference, the fact that we muck about with it, change it into something else; a dim sim, a snag, a mystery ball and then simply ignore the fact that its there. Silly buggers we are!
Posted by: Sticky | 22 March 2006 at 10:44 PM
FDA states hot dog should comprise of 80% of meat and fat, the other 20% is, to my speculation it should be, “the parts that keep a body functioning look so bloody terrible” of yours. Talk about out of sight out of mind eh…mate !!!
Posted by: cd_gen2004 | 24 March 2006 at 01:40 PM
I had a bo nuong DIY sizzling beef hot plate in Pho Gam Cau alleyway (next to the train overpass on Hang Giay, north of Dong Xuan market) last night. V.tasty - lots of fresh lean raw beef strips on the plate, along with uncooked onion rings, garlic cloves, snap peas, coriander, pineapple, eggplant/aubergine, tomato, etc. A banh my bread roll and a coupla dipping sauces on the side.
However this bo nuong was a bit unusual in that there were a couple of pieces of unidentifiable white meat/tissue mixed in with the beef. I asked the extremely helpful young Viet bloke (who was basically cooking the whole barbie for me) using my appalling Viet pronunciation whether the white stuff was 'thit lon' (pork). He replied by saying something that sounded like "NOM". Any idea what this is?! I have searched for this word on Viet dictionaries online. Maybe 'nom' is brain?
Cheers,
Zank
Posted by: Zank | 11 March 2010 at 08:49 AM