I was at the grocery store at 7:30 this Saturday morning. I was walking around, and found these awful looking things in the meat department.
This is tongue. Cow tongues, lined up next to pigs feet and tripe.
Much of my life relates to the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary that I heard over and over and over again as I was growing up. This morning Ramona came to mind again—the time her and her sister had to make dinner, and had to use tongue because it was inexpensive. The characters narrated how awful a thing tongue was, and always in my mind, tongue was gray and about the size of an adult’s hand. If you can’t tell by my cell phone picture, tongue is slimy and looks like a mid-sized animal curled up in the package. Like a cross between a goldfish and a housecat.
Speaking of tongues, I am taking a class about the phonetics of Spanish. A good part of studying consists of looking at diagrams of how the mouth shapes sounds. (And trying to imitate them—slowly and thoroughly) I am gaining a new appreciation for the versatility of the tongue.
4 comments:
Wow, that's slightly disturbing... what kind of tongue is that in the package? As in, what animal did it come from?
I hate to be compulsive (Ramona was at the age where she demanded accuracy of everyone, including herself), but I think Ramona and Beezus didn't actually have to cook tongue; only eat it (well, I'm not sure if they actually ate it. They may have rebelled). They cooked dinner with chicken and paprika on another night.
By the way, your cell phone takes great pictures!
Okay, I think you're right. I'm glad you remember Ramona details, too.
Oh der, I just saw the 'cow tongues' bit in your entry. See, I'm actually illiterate, so I ask silly questions you've already answered in your entries.
By the way, that sounds like a fascinating class. I remember Mr. Erickson (Erikson?) trying to describe how to shape our mouths to say sounds and words, and how half the class never seemed to get it.
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