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What I'm writing in YEAR OF THE DOG

I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
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Beef tongue

Before you completely hurl, you have to understand that I grew up eating things like pig’s feet and chicken feet and oxtail and turkey tails.

I’ve never had beef tongue, and Captain Caffeine wanted to try it, so he went to the Chinese market and got one. Raw, it looks rather disgusting so I won’t post the picture.

He braised it in the pressure cooker with some herbs and then sliced it and braised it again in soy sauce and green garlic.





It actually turned out rather tasty, and I’ve eaten liver and kidney and didn’t get grossed out, but something about the beef tongue was a little off-putting. It tasted fine, it was just something in the texture or something that made me not care much for it.

Have you eaten beef tongue before? How did you prepare it?
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Comments

Michele said…
Wow, you guys are very brave to cook it yourself! I've only had them prepared in restaurants. Very lean muscle type protein. And the flavor can be quite tasty... But yah, maybe it's the thought of it being the "tongue", I don't quite care for the texture of it.
Tue Jun 05, 12:54:00 PM 2012
Princess Dieter aka Mir said…
I like reading manga, and when they head for Yakiniku and order offal (diagphram?) and tongue, it's like, 'Um, can I have filet mignon instead?" I'm totally a food wuss. Can't do organs and offal. Jewish delis serve tongue. My mom ate all the weird animal bits. I didn't inherit that disposition. Sadly. Offal is good for you.
Tue Jun 05, 01:01:00 PM 2012
Camy Tang said…
The reason we wanted to try it ourselves is because the Captain had it at a Japanese restaurant and really liked it. But alas, ours was not as good and there was something about the texture I didn't like. Couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Tue Jun 05, 05:38:00 PM 2012
Camy Tang said…
Offal is good for you? Still, after the tongue experience, I'm not sure I'd try it...
Tue Jun 05, 05:38:00 PM 2012
Ladette said…
A friend of ours in CO made us a whole Mexican meal including the beef tongue. She put it with some peppers or something. The taste was not bad, but the texture... yikes. I couldn't get past the taste buds sitting there... it was like it was tasting me while I was tasting it. The rest of her meal was DELICIOUS (of course, I love Mexican food).
Tue Jun 05, 06:58:00 PM 2012
Camy Tang said…
ROFL! Yes, I can relate! The little taste buds were kind of nasty looking. But I can see how tongue would be good as a Mexican dish with spices.
Wed Jun 06, 06:20:00 PM 2012
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