0  | 

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

When my son was a kid, he'd come with me to the grocery store and help me shop. As we shopped, we played a game: Find the Scary Meat, where we scanned the fresh meat case for strange, yet edible animal parts.

"Look, Mom! Ewww!" He'd hold up a package of dark red shimmering liver.

"How about -- oxtails!" I'd wave a package of oxtails.

"Pig's feet!!"

"Kidneys!"

The great thing was that the selection changed from week to week, so you could always find something new. Occasionally we found whole beef tongue. Other times we gagged over tripe, chitlins or sweetbreads.

(Really, sweetbreads have the wrong name. It sounds like it should be in the bakery aisle; not in the meat case. It's a blatant case of false advertising, if you ask me.)

Now, I know there are folks who love these meats, who swear by them and call them delicious. I respect those folks; I even admire them. But I can't get past it, even though I eat steaks and chops and rack of lamb. It's just too scary.

The scariest meat I've ever seen in my life was a cut that I've only seen once. My son was grown by then, so he wasn't with me.  I almost bought some, just to show him the grand prize of scary meat.

Pig faces.

I am not kidding. Boneless, squished up pig's faces, complete with ears. I don't care what anyone says, that's some scary meat.