Pig's ears and shrimp for brains

I may have written previously about the somewhat eccentric, arguably barbaric eating habits the Spanish often have. However, since Spain and food are two of my favorite topics, it's hard to ever stray too far from that central theme.

Coming from America, the land of milk, honey, and a firm belief that whatever we eat should not in any way resemble something that was once alive, Spanish eating habits may seem strange. For a long time I thought that I enjoyed tapas, those Spanish appetizers that come free with your caña (beer). I have come to realize lately, though, that my American sensibilities often get in the way of enjoying most of these treats. Unlike the American image of tapas, real Spanish tapas are not delightful slices of artisanal French bread topped with fine cheeses, truffles and foie gras.

Real tapas are served at little corner bars frequented almost exclusively by old men and lit with harsh fluorescent lights, no matter what time of day. They consist of lots of fish parts, many of them raw. Sardines, squid, anchovies, you name it. Also popular are dishes with the ever present canned tuna - especially empanada (tuna/hard-boiled egg pie, actually better than it sounds) and "russian" salad (a kind of macaroni salad with, of course, tuna). Getting a dish of paella is a nice surprise, but the shrimp come whole - with shell, tail, head and, yes, eyes.

I am opposed to all of these things, but I acknowledge that this is mostly for no good reason. I'm sure it’s all very tasty. There’s American in me that I can't seem to kill. But I don’t like my shrimp to be able to look up at me with their cold, dead, inky black eyes. No thank you. These are things I'm trying to work on.

There are tapas that lack skeletons and slime, but these - fried potatoes and the only very mildly spicy pimientos de padrón - while considered by the Spanish to be very spicy, are pretty boring. There are also delightful fried croquetas, cured meats and cheeses, chips and olives (all you normally ever get free these days) and my favorites, the egg dishes. But why limit myself?

In an effort to expand my horizons I tried two "new" delicacies last weekend - fried pig's ear and shrimp head.

First the shrimp. I was told that this was "shrimp brains" but I'm not entirely sure that shrimp have what we would normally classify as a brain and if they do, I'm sure they must be very, very tiny. First I had to learn to peel my own shrimp. First you grip the head and savagely rip it from the body. I am not very good at this and shrimp brain juice got everywhere. Next you pull the tail off and then the little legs. Once you've pulled the legs off you can peel the shell from the shrimp. Mmm shrimp, normal enough. To eat the "brain" suck the juice out of the head you pulled off, pull the shell up and off of the head and eat the weird white gooey bit. This has a very strange consistency. I don't recommend it unless you don't have a problem with that. I have concluded that all shrimp bits taste pretty much the same. Although it's nice to say I tried it, I probably won't do it again :)

Pig's ears are something I normally think should be fed to dogs or something, but here in Spain you can fry them in tons of olive oil just like anything else. The plate I got was enormous. There must have been several pigs worth of ears cut up there. These were actually really tasty and I would try them again. Mostly they were just really greasy and fatty with little bits of pork. They were strangely crunchy in the middle – that’s the cartilage you're crunching on – but not so weird I couldn't eat it. Better crunchy than gooey, in my opinion. It kind of just added to the fried sensation.

Hopefully one day I will have tried all the different pig parts one can eat (although I guess I probably already have in the form of sausage). I'll keep you posted.