I've probably had the most diverse culinary experience of most if not all of you (e.g. snake, urchin, dog, yes dog.) and I gotta say, cow tongue is pretty goddamn tender.
Did I ever tell you my dog cooking (I didn't eat it) story?
This was like, the first winter I was in Wisconsin. I was like 8. And we go to a traditional Ho-Chunk feast, because, being young and stupid, I want to learn about that shit. Well now, the way Ho-Chunks do feast, the clan that hosts the feast cooks everything for everyone ELSE. So if your clan does the cooking you don't eat. So when we went to this feast our clan was hosting, so our clan did the cooking.
Well about noon mom had to go into town to get coffee or something else, I can't remember what, suffice it to say the people that were cooking all day were getting thirsty and she went to get them shit to drink. (it should also be noted here that the woman all stay inside and the men (even boys) stay outside during the cooking. Men outside cooking meat and stuff and women preparing different types of food like breads and stuff, inside.
I should also note that my brother was very sick as a kid so he didn't come, as standing outside for a full day in a Wisconsin winter does not help weak lungs.
So I'm there alone with people who I've been told are part of my family but I don't actually know any of them... and I'm like 8. The day seems to be going all cool and stuff. Some of the guys teach me how to make a fire without using a lighter and a lot of cool stuff like that and I'm having a good time. It is at this point, around noon, when one of the guys tells me to go play with a dog they have tied up outside.
So I'm playing with this dog right?
Then this guy walks up behind the dog on the other side of it from where I am. And he just hits the dog in the side of the head with a giant stick/log thing, in one fucking tremendously powerful hit he kills it instantly. I am fucking shocked beyond words. Scared and all kinds of shit. And so they give me a drink and tell me to go sit down by the fire for a while. So I do, later on the guy comes around and tells me that he didn't tell me he was going to kill the dog because I couldn't know because the dog was supposed to be peaceful when it died. I was supposed to distract it from the guy killing it so it didn't know what was coming.
It was probably the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life.
Also consider that they have to do this or something similar every fucking time they do this.
I never went back to a feast for my tribe after that.