Thursday, February 21, 2008

Offal Quest

Back in California, my father, lover of all things innards (except brains...he says they taste too much like, well, brain) has instigated, with the help of a local dirt expert, Offal Mondays at K & L bistro in Sebastopol. He has been teasing me with pictures and descriptions of the dishes every week. "Best kidneys since La Grenouille," he'll say. "Oooh, pig's trotters next week!" he'll brag and then make a bad pun about them running late...ha....ha. So since I don't have a regular restaurant that takes my suggestions (all steak tartare, all the time, unless I want a cheese plate instead) I have to take matters into my own hands and go on an offal quest so that I too can get some good guts (and anything else that is pushed off the butcher's table, hence the name) every week. I like offal. Not just because of the awesome factor. I'm not looking to impress people, it tastes good. Also I think I like it because I like to finish things. Example: when I'm eating apples I eat everything. Core, seeds, sometimes the stem. It's satisfying. It's really the only way I'm in any way "green." So why not apply that system of eating to meat? Exactly. I should. If I could afford to buy myself a whole animal to eat I would. But that would require a lot of things, one of them being that I would need to have control over more than just one shelf and one drawer in the fridge, which would also need to be at least a full sized fridge. Yes, obviously I'm living the life.

Here's what I'm thinking:

-calf's liver
-kidney
-pig's trotters
-sweetbreads..mmmmmm
-tripe (because I need to give it another chance)
-tongue

First up? Probably liver at Diner next week. Very excited.

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