Where have I been? Why I'm glad you asked ...

I know that some of you are wondering why I haven't written more updates recently. You may even be asking, "Where has Scott been?"

I've been out tasting goat's head; and believe me, it's one of those things that you just have to experience. Most Americans don't like to be able to identify the animal's body part that they are eating. (I consider myself to be one of those Americans.) If you want to eat liver - I like liver, by the way - you want it chopped up with onions. No one that I know wants a whole liver to be brought out to them on a platter. One should view animal's body parts at a dissection not at a dinner.

So I was a little bit taken aback Saturday night when I went to visit Bilgee. When I arrived something was boiling covered on the little stove that serves both to warm their shack and cook their food. (As an aside: I really wish that I could post pictures of the interior of their tiny shacks, the Mongolians huddled around a metal box, a few chunks of coal their only source of heat when the weather outside is below zero. But I feel awkward taking pictures of such primitive conditions because Mongolians know that these conditions are primitive and feel ashamed. If you want to see such poverty, you'll just have to come to Mongolia yourself.)

Bilgee happily announced that they had a delicacy on tap for that night: goat's head. Sure enough, when his mom whipped the lid of the pot, there sat two goats' heads. Bilgee pulled one out and placed it on a platter. There was the head of a goat; his eyelids had swollen in cooking and covered his eyes, so you couldn't really say it was looking at me. The tongue was slightly hanging out of his mouth as if the poor creature was slyly sticking his tongue out at me. I fought back the urge to stick out my tongue at the now lifeless beast. Bilgee made some cuts along the side of the head from the edge of the mouth back and, with a mighty crack, pulled the head into two pieces. He cut of the ears and offered me some with the advice that they were a little chewy. I passed on eating the ears. He then cut the tongue up. I've had tongue before and was happy to eat that. Goat's tongue is a little strong for my taste but at least it can be chewed. Bilgee looked as if he was chewing shoe leather as he worked on one ear.

I tried a few other pieces but missed out on the eyes. I guess you have to dig those out of the eye sockets with a knife. All in all, my first experience with goat head went rather well as I was able to chew and swallow everything I took without mishap. And my stomach felts fine the next day. Happy times indeed.