Cilantro and Bean Sprouts On The Side

I'm a picky eater but it's a different picky than my leg dangling days at the table where I waited for a pardon. I was thinking about Cathy Erway's book, The Art of Eating In, again. Erway cooked tripe several times:

Offal has traditionally been reserved for the poor; hence, it is cheap, but people have been finding ways to make it more palatable across the world, in some cases turning them into delicacies, such as head cheese (made from simmering a pig's head and coagulating the pieces into a sliceable block) foie gras (the fattened liver of goose), fried sweetbreads (the thymus gland) or braised chicken feet, another one of my dim sum favorites...(221)

My folks love chitlins. I, however, have never wrapped my lips around them. The folks moan and tell me what I am missing but I tell them they may have my share for the rest of my life and I mean that sincerely.

In thinking about food that poor folks eat, I remember how my grandmother used to make sugar syrup; a bit redundant, no? My grandmother would add water to sugar and heat the concoction until it resembled syrup which would then be poured over biscuits or pancakes.

I once took a short trip to the store with my aunt and grandmother. My grandmother wanted to go but she was also hungry and didn't want to leave her hog head cheese behind. She had also added vinegar to the cheese. Oh my God, that was such a small car, the foulest smelling concoction and the longest trip ever.

What's the most exotic thing you've eaten? I haven't been much of an adventurous eater so I would have to say goat and once I heard another goat bleating nearby, that was the end of my adventure...

I had another work-related luncheon today. If it had not been someone that I have known for so long, I would not have gone. We went to Lemon Grass, a Vietnamese restaurant which had no nutritional information available. I decided to go with Chicken Egg Noodle Soup (Mi Ga):

Egg noodle soup with shredded chicken breast and vegetables.

I was given cilantro and beans sprouts on the side. This was, hands down, the best soup that I've had in ages. I took comfort in the fact that I haven't seen any overweight Vietnamese in the area. The portion was huge and my colleagues kept teasing me that it looked like I hadn't touched the soup. I shared some and then took the rest home.