speaking of aspic...a story. (grossish. duh)

GBCK

once upon a time...My dad did social-work-ish type things as a school counselor.  Thsi sometimes involved home visits.Now, one of the first rules of homevisits is the one that Steinbeck talks about--taht accepting an offered snack/cup of coffee/etc = important.  You take a glass of water.  You take the mug of coffee.  You treat it like the best thing in your day.  That will get you farther with the parents.So, dad is standing in a very VERY rural kitchen, talking to a woman .  wooman offers him coffee.  Dad looks around, relizes the kitchen is filthy but has to say yes.  So he accepts the coffee and tries not to touch anything.Dad asks her what she's working onmaking and takes a sip of coffee...woman throws back the towel that's been covering it up and says 'head cheese'.Dad (who is NOT a squeamish guy) stares into the dead animal's eye socket and looks at the wiggly brain bits  and spews the coffee back into his cup and gagging badly..  Which was better than spewing it across the room--which was his first impulse.  Apparently that visit didn't go so well.  Gagging =/= being gracious to one's hospitality.

zsazsa-stl

At least it was only gagging.  I would have vomited on her head cheese.

LnR70707

OMG...I would barfed the coffee back up and dropped the cup on the floor.

VarunaTT

I think he handled it magnificently.  I don't think I could've done that well.

awesome-sauce

WTF is head cheese! I would have graciously excused myself. After

GBCK

Head cheese is (thank you wikipedia):not a cheese, but meat pieces from the head of a calf or pig (sometimes a sheep or cow), in aspic, with onion, black pepper, allspice, bayleaf, salt and/or vinegar. It may also include meat from the feet, tongue and heart. It is usually eaten cold or at room temperature as a luncheon meat.so....a non-cleaned head boiling in a pot.  with lots of bits of the rest of the animal...feet, organs, etc.