h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

But this was a little much for me. Once a Vietnamese friend of mine had made a dessert from green beans, which were mashed into a paste, rolled into balls, covered with sesame seeds, then coated in honey. I've had several sweet bean dishes, but I couldn't handle the flavor of the string beans combined with the sweetness of the honey.

The strangest thing I've ever eaten was cow tongue. The flavor wasn't bad at all - an organ meat reminiscent of liver, but without liver's spongy, gritty texture. The worst part was that to prepare a piece of tongue for a sandwich, the taste buds had to be cut off. The thing looked so much like a giant cooked human tongue that it was a little hard to stomach.

well i'm originaly from mexico and we eat the whole cow, i mean all of it, have you tried a cow's brain quesadilla ?ear taco? there is also called head taco, just take anything from the cow head and put it in a tortilla ,very popular!intestine soup? just add a little spice et voila! one of the most famous soup in the north side,for southerners stomach soup!! and this does not end here we eat fried pork skin, chiken liver, chiken stomach,ant ,bugs and criquets! well toasted plese!and remember we do tequila fermenting (the precess to convert water into alcohol) agave with a maggot in it, remmember that when you try your next shot of tequila, salt? lemon? salud y buen provecho

Oh, sure... but the worm is to indicate the level of alcohol in the bottle. When the worm dies, it's time to fish it out and drink the tequila. Only the lower-quality tequilas have the worm still in the bottle.

Menudo is a simple stew made from cayenne pepper, hominy, and tripe. I like the flavor, but I have a problem with the texture of the intestine itself. It's covered with fine fleshy hairs, which when the cow was alive moved the contents of the intestine along. It ruins my appetite to think of what the hairs used to do, so I have to distract myself if I'm going to eat menudo.

Tamales are made (traditionally) from the head of a pig. The head is boiled down, and all the meat ends up in the pot while the bones are removed. Then it's spiced, seasoned, and turned into a tamale. I'm eating some right now, as a matter of fact - quite yummy. It's traditional around this time of year to make a whole bunch of tamales - I always buy several dozen.

Fried pork skins - love them. Chicken livers - love them. In fact, the only things in that list I find odd are the ants and crickets. But if you think about it, shrimp, lobsters, and crabs are really sea insects, so I can imagine the taste of a cricket is similar.

Are we going soft? Scratchings is a common bar snack. That's fried pork skin. I remember when you could hardly see a buffet without there being tongue sandwiches. Pig farmers say we eat everything but the oink. Don't forget the other things we put in our mouths like stock cubes. What do you think goes in those?

Of course we sometimes use things to eat the bad bits of us. You could look at my entry on Medical Maggots for more info.