The Nicefication of Eating Meat

[Plenum]

I was in the car this afternoon with my friend, driving to a local supermarket (Harris Farm for you Aussies; it's not one of the three major chains, and tends to have much fresher produce etc).

The friend's friend was there, who is also a friend to me now.

Anyway, this friend's friend suddenly mentioned off hand - I like fried brains.  They're my favourite.

This person is of Greek-Australian heritage, and then went on about tripe, liver and kidneys, and my friend chimed in about how unfortunate it was that sausages don't use intestines as the wrapping, but instead use some sort of other casing.

All this talk made me realise - in generations past, the whole animal was prized and used, and nothing went to waste.  Nowadays, it's all about the fillet and the prime cuts.

I'm not saying this is either good or bad; but I can see how growing up with a more sanitized and 'nice' version of meat dishes (chicken's feet was about the most extreme I got), there was some sort of divorce from the fact that this was an actual animal once.

oh - and my mum's favourite was eating the fish eyeballs which grossed me out.