Saturday 12 August 2006

Feet and parcels

I knew about bouillabaisse, but until last week I had never encountered Pieds et Paquets, which is another Provençal delicacy, consisting of mutton tripe rolled and cooked with sheep's feet. Quite nice really, though not something you’d want to eat often.
The taste was nothing out of the ordinary, much like any other sort of mutton stew, but I was intrigued by the shape of the various bits in the pot. The parcels were easy enough to cut up and eat, but the feet were bifurcated lumps, as I suppose one would expect, sheep being cloven-footed. After you’ve got the little bit of meat and some gelatinous matter off them, you are left with two small-finger-sized bones, a curious sight. I brought a pair home with me hoping to have fun by asking my friends to identify them, but sadly they got thrown away with the rest of the rubbish at the bottom of my suitcase.

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