I really could not bring myself to try horse. I couldn't get the picture of Black Beauty out of my head!

Also... shrimp with heads on them... I am from New Orleans. We eat shrimp with heads on them. I actually get upset because I can't find this in Washington... sometimes I need the heads on!

Lobsters always have heads on, no?

and yeah, EW on vegemite.

oh, and we also eat turtle soup in New Orleans. it's not my favorite, but heaps of people love it.

I'm from Seattle and when friends and I go out for real sushi and order any kind of roll with shrimp in it, sometimes the chef will give you the whole shrimp heads deep-fried in tempura batter as sort of a special extra treat.

Fab's dad is of the old-school, post-war style - he eats anything and everything. Tout est bon dans le cochon def applies to him - he eats the snout, the ears, the feet, the intestines - everything! He has been known to eat road kill - "Why waste good meat??"

And in Bretagne, "tête de veau" is a regular speciality, usually offered on rotation, ie "Stop on down for Tête de veau Tuesday".

Re:the shrimp - I hate peeling them myself, only because when you crack off the head, you see all the brain juices squirting out. Not to mention the poo line that goes down the back...just don't need to be seeing that before I eat!! Also, I think it's a damn lot of work to go through to eat something so small.

Hmm, brains bring to my mind the idea of "bheja" [Hindi for brain] fry, which can be found in India in the Mughlai cuisine. Maybe a south asian kebab shop here might serve it.

Never had the above [couldn't make myself to try], but I have had fish brains, since when my mom made fish curry, the head was the choicest piece :).

About the in-america-you-think-that-meat-comes-from-plastic-boxes, it is totally true, and reminded me of my childhood in India, where dad took me to the butcher's and we chose the live hen which would then be killed, cleaned, carved and given to us.

My person respect order [of people related to animal deaths] is [in decreasing order of respect]

1. Person who eats only what he/she can hunts/kills himself/herself.
2. Person who has guts to see the slaughter of the animal that he/eat is going to eat.
3. Person who loves the meat pattie/tandoori chicken, but does not want to see how it is killed/prepared.
4. Person who kills/causes death of animals for purposes other than eating [cock-fighting, random shooting of cats, etc etc]

cheers,
-A
P.S. Goat liver is AMAZING when cooked :)

Road kill ! Yeah

People here call it 'pizza routiere' = 'road pizza'

Arf! Arf! (devilous giggles)

Omly's America is around Boston and the surrounding coastal areas. This means that you get some local customs, but also all the international options in the city.

Since I shop a lot in the asian grocery stores (generally less expensive unlike the import stores in France you seem to have mentioned previously), I see more items than you would see in a typical town where I grew up. I have seen the quail eggs here, but I have never bough them before. Maybe now I will!

There are butchers in Boston, particularly in the more ethnic neighborhoods. You can see heads or whole carcasses wired up for display there. And you can get animals that you can't get at a general grocery store, like goat. Often these establishments are kosher or halal.

In Boston you can buy oysters whole or opened, but usually if they open them in front of you they are for immediate eating. For example there is a vendor outside of Haymarket that serves them with wedges of lemon available. For the more upscale crowd there is the famous Union Oyster House nearby though.

As for eel, I have to admit I love it. Mostly you see it in Japanese restaurants or Asian grocery stores. My uncle used to catch them in traps though in streams and rivers that flow into the ocean. Grilled they are excellent!

Growing up in a lobstering village (not in Boston proper obviously, but about an hour away), I always saw lobsters with their heads on. Even now I think I always see them that way unless you are just ordering the tail. (Which is silly, but you can do.)

The only road kill I know anyone eating was deer. If it was in good health, and you killed it on impact, it totally acceptable to toss it in the back of the truck to butcher when you got home if you were so inclined.

Oh also I have gone clamming when I was a kid. It is a great activity to send the kids out to do in the shallows. I can't say that I care to eat them, but it is a texture thing.

I've tried all sorts of goodies, some of them on my latest blog post about weird food... but some of the craziest weren't on the list:

1. when i was 9 we went down to visit my grandparents. my dad had told my sister (who was 6) that my grandma grew up on a farm in kansas during the depression and they ate "everything," my sister didn't believe him and questioned my grandma.
next time we visited she special ordered calf's brains from the butcher and scrambled them up with eggs.
grey + yellow = unappetizing! berk!

2. when i went to japan i went out with some japanese friends who decided to try a specialty that they'd only ever heard of.
yup, that night i got to try raw fish testicles dipped in soy sauce.
these gooey little opaque sacks did not sit well in the tummy (and i didn't know what i was eating at the time.)

3. the big specialty from Caen is "tripes a la mode de caen" i never ordered it but my brave little sister did when she visited. the tripe didn't taste like much but the texture didn't do much for me :S the sauce, however, was delish!!

4. haggis. in one word - YUM! as long as you don't think about what you're eating delish!! esp with the taties and nips or however they call the potatoes and turnips :-)