Looking at this may curb your appetite…

I ran across this disgusting display a couple of weeks ago at our local Sam’s Club.

Yep, a display of cow tongues, and even cheaper if you buy a whole case of them.

I recall that my mother made a tongue sandwich for us to eat when I was younger. I think after hearing me and my sister complain about how disgusting they were, we were never served that delicacy again. Since my mother was born in England and lived there until she was about 14, I thought maybe this was an English specialty.  The Brits are known for mostly insipid and unhealthy food, like fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding, kidney pie, water cress sandwiches, etc. I looked online, and I could not find any proof that it was an English “delicacy,”,except that throughout Europe it seems to be on menus fairly frequently. I also discovered that it is used frequently for the meat in tacos in Mexico. Remind me never to order tacos when visiting our neighbor to the south.

Normally I try not to think too much about the animal when I’m enjoying a nice steak, a rack of ribs or a piece of fried chicken. But somehow, when I saw this display, I felt a twinge of sadness for these critters whose tongues and other body parts were sacrificed for us humans.

I get that cows don’t talk. But somehow removing an animal’s ability to do so — if it ever figured out how to do that — seemed kind of cruel. You know the cow, if it could talk, would be pleading “please don’t do this to me.”

So, no more tongue sandwiches for me, thank you.