This post is a rare combination of something that has inspired me at the same time as being dire. You’ll catch my drift in a moment.
I was reading the magazine in last Saturday’s Times. It was a food special and contained an article from a food journo talking about his worst ever meal.
It turns out that the Armenia is renowned for its shocking cuisine, amongst the most heinous dishes is, wait for it ‘cow ankle, hoof and brain soup’. Hope you’re not eating your lunch as here comes the recipe - Strip the hair off each ankle and pop the ankle/hoof combos into a pot with one lovely fresh cow brain. Simply simmer for 36 hours, scrape off the fatty floating deposit and voila delish. Serve with lashings of vodka with a side order of garlic.
A meal fit for a king – non?
Well yes, absolutely, and now here comes the ‘inspire’ bit. The whole popularity of Khash as it’s called, is due to what BE calls ‘scarcity value’ The whole reason it became so popular in the first place was due to the king of Armenia seeing his servant’s children looking healthy and asked him what they ate. The servant replied it was Khash and so the king, thinking it was this that would do the trick began to eat it himself (and who indeed wouldn’t imagine the health benefits galore to be enjoyed through the consumption of cow hoof?) Once the peasants got wind of it (and I can only image the wind one might get post Khash) it suddenly became super popular. So there you have it, BE applied to Calf hoof and ankle soup.
Image © 2005-10 MrC
mmmm... I think that would make a nice buffet lunch at our next buzz meeting. Who'll volunteer to catch the cow?
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the japanese queuing up to eat "live" skinned snakes!
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