So You Think You're a Mexican

I have a friend that has an extremely weak stomach and passes out over the slightest thing, but she says these pictures are not that gross. Buuuuuuuut......I'll warn you all just in case.

Don't read this if you are eating.

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Don't read it if you're about to eat.

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Don't read this if you might eat in the near future. 
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Don't read it if you think you might be grossed out because hey...you never know.

NOW...Let the party begin!!

*Maestro!*

I woke up early Monday morning for a teachers meeting. After that, I went downstairs to retrieve my pig head, tossed it over my shoulder, and schlepped it down to our local butcher shop to have it cut up. A lady in our church owns the shop it so she let me go behind the counter and watch everything. (I felt quite important). 

First she cut off its big-O ears and the fat inside its ear with a knife so sharp, it would've made any boy scout proud. 

She then took the head over to this huge machine and proceeded to cut it up into about 10 pieces. 

Getting smaller.....

She is holding the cesos, which are its brains. I held them and it felt like a scoop of pure mush. 

Pig brain tacos are a popular food here, and I've tried it. Tastes like fish. 

After this surgery was finished, I returned home to cook me up some Pig Head Stew haha :P

Washing the pieces of meat

Here is part of its tongue
I tasted it after it was cooked; it was very tender and not rubbery like I'd imagined.

...and some of its teeth. I actually saved one of its teeth as a keepsake, but I seem to have lost it...
Can you hear me bawling? :(

Its eyeball

Do I look like a pirate? Arg!

My faaavorite part of all of this was the snout....It was so soft and mushy and fatty, like a chunk of jello.

Comparing snout sizes

Beau wanted this snout so bad!

  So pink and funny looking!

I made a traditional soup called Pozole. Its main ingredient is whole hominy kernals. In layman's terms: corn. 

In aztec days, pozole was made with human meat. Eventually cannibalism was banned however, so pork was used in its place because it "tastes similar". Nice to know.... :-/

Here is a bowl of the cooked head:

The majority of it was puuuuuure FAT! 

Now, I know I said I would not taste the pig head but something that had me shuddering even more was the thought of being labeled a ninny. I gave in, if only to defend my honor.
Surprise, surprise! It tasted like pork!
Here is the finished product:

You are supposed to put lime, radishes, lettuce and oregano and chili powder in your soup.
It is not my favorite meal, but of course my pozole was totally bomb.
Just kidding...actually, I was poisoned by a pig a few years back and pork has never tasted the same to me.

While cleaning the meat, I managed to paper-cut my hands up with some bone slivers.
(For some reason, any cut I ever get ends up infected.)
When my dad found out, he basically turned all melodramatic and said this...(and I QUOTE!)
"Go to the store right now and buy some alcohol. Rub that on the cuts, then repeat with peroxide."
When I scoffed, he added, "If you don't, you could lose you hands." 
Immediately I began to feel a strange tingling sensation in my fingers.........


"But God, I...I..I need my fingers for my new meat-cutting career!"

 ^^Better safe than sorry, no?^^

If anyone has any extra animal heads laying around......Well...
I pretty much am a pro now.

~Bethany~

Next goal: Have reason to get a tetanus shot.