Tongue to tail, it’s a mouthful

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This article was published 09/08/2011 (5187 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AS far as food trends go, this one’s a killer.

From tongue sandwiches to pig’s tail, duck heart to veal brains, so-called “dude food” has become the gastro equivalent of a rite of manhood — like lifting a boulder above one’s shoulders or watching Steel Magnolias without flinching.

Bragging rights, however, should not be confused with blood lust. If anything, insiders say the upscale restaurant movement — championed by adventurous eaters of both sexes — is fundamentally concerned with the morals of meat-eating.

“The killing of any animal shouldn’t be taken lightly in my opinion, and knowing that we can put just about every part of the animal to use makes it easier to handle,” says Chris Falconer, a noted Canadian food blogger.

“This is the closest we’ve come in many years to understanding that meat is more than just a Saran-wrapped hunk of animal in a Styrofoam dish.”

Indeed, nose-to-tail cooking is largely a reaction to prepackaged food culture, in which the reality of an animal’s journey from factory to fridge has been all but erased.

When diners literally come face to face with their food — a dish of tête de veau (calf’s head), for instance — that journey becomes a lot harder to ignore.

Falconer, the Edmonton man behind eatingisthehardpart.com, has made meals of many an animal part, including bone marrow, tongue, head, intestines, caul fat (the lace membrane encasing a cow’s internal organs) and pork belly.

He suggests the move of such delicacies from the food fringes to four-star dining rooms is partially owed to gastro-tourism shows such as No Reservations and Bizarre Foods, which fetishize the exotic for western palates.

“(They make) relatively unknown items almost pale in comparison to the really wild things,” says Falconer. “Someone watching the show might be like, ‘Hmmm, pig ears… that’s not as bad as fresh warm rat blood.’ “

Toronto’s Karon Liu, food writer for The Grid, says chefs have embraced the trend for its pleasing economics and departure from the ordinary — not to mention the fact sweetbreads (thymus glands or pancreas of young calves, lambs and piglets) carry more culinary cachet than steak frites.

In the end, however, these pork provocateurs must deliver on flavour if they want a dish to endure beyond any initial one-upmanship.

— Postmedia News