Growing up in America, not many of us (new school) folks grew up eating offal. I'm willing to guess that many of you aren't even familiar with the term. Offal is the odd bits of an animal

(tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, tripe).

 

Until I made a trip to Mexico in my late teens, I'd never eaten any besides store bought liver pudding. My first legit offal consumption happened to be tongue tacos from a street vendor and my mind was completely blown away. The meat was rich, had amazing texture and seared up nicely like a steak. From that moment I began trying other innards once I returned home to the states.

 

I highly recommend starting off with heart or tongue recipes in order to get you acquainted with the offal world and then go on from there. 

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To lead you into these recipes, I leave you with a quote from the offal king himself (Chef Chris Cosentino) and remember, a lot of foods were once weird to eat.

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“I often wondered who was the first person to realize that eating an artichoke was a good idea.” 

                                                                                                     

 ~ Chris Cosentino