I was at first revolted by this article in today's Age. Adrian Richardson, chef at La Luna in North Carlton, is offering offal in a special sitting called Adrian Cooks Offal (for any Adrian Mole fans like me, this is especially amusing).
The descriptions are, without doubt, a vegan's ickiness. "I do a pig's head brawn, using all the bits and pieces, skin and ears and eyeballs and tongues, cook them down and jelly them. said Mr Richardson. Eeee-ew.
But? Is it more confronting to hear about the uses of parts of an animal's body unusual to us? Is it any less icky than the flesh of a steak? Should it be?
Not to a vegan. Whether it's eyeballs or hooves or brains or a full head or tongue or kidneys or liver or heart or lungs or intestines or rump or chop or breast or thigh or kebab or mince or sausages or parma - it's all the same. None should be eaten and all should incite the same ickiness. That many people recoil from offal but don't think twice about their chicken wings is the product of a lifetime of suppression of the natural ickiness that eating flesh arouses, and the crushing cultural imperative of omnivorous eating.
Perhaps seeing eyes and tongue and ears as they are is the reminder we need that a body is a body is a body. It's not for eating.
But? Is it more confronting to hear about the uses of parts of an animal's body unusual to us? Is it any less icky than the flesh of a steak? Should it be?
Not to a vegan. Whether it's eyeballs or hooves or brains or a full head or tongue or kidneys or liver or heart or lungs or intestines or rump or chop or breast or thigh or kebab or mince or sausages or parma - it's all the same. None should be eaten and all should incite the same ickiness. That many people recoil from offal but don't think twice about their chicken wings is the product of a lifetime of suppression of the natural ickiness that eating flesh arouses, and the crushing cultural imperative of omnivorous eating.
Perhaps seeing eyes and tongue and ears as they are is the reminder we need that a body is a body is a body. It's not for eating.
