Recently, the DVD for my favorite book turned movie, Warm
Bodies, was released. It’s a story
about star-crossed lovers, “R” and Julie.
R is a corpse, Zombie if you will, and Julie is a human that has not
been infected. As their story unfolds,
many wonderful themes arise in the movie as well as the book concerning
appreciation of being human. One in
particular, being able to appreciate the all those little things that are taken
for granted that represent the daily fullness of life around us, plays out as
we learn about their worlds. One of my
favorite scenes in the movie that illustrates this is when R and Julie go for a
drive. In the book, by Isaac Marion, he
writes “We are cruising the tarmac, taxiing to and fro under the middle afternoon
sun our hair ruffles in the breeze” (p. 49).
R manages to overcome his new natural instincts of “The New Hunger”
while with Julie. The humans that are
turned into corpses are ruled by “The New Hunger”, an insatiable need to eat
human flesh. In their uncontrollable
feeding frenzies, the desire to human brains is strong because in consuming
brain tissue, a corpse gets to experience their victim’s memories and feel less
dead. Both the movie and book will leave
you realizing how much of the daily “human” routine is not appreciated.
Now, watching and reading about my favorite story hero eat a
chuck of brain matter he has saved in his pocket is a little gross. However, in my perpetual foodie
point-of-view, it got me wondering about how some cuisines include the
preparation of animal brains for consumption.
Now before you stomach turns and you stop reading, please note that
there are recipes for beef, pig, and lamb brain on some recipe sites. In a recent conversation with my
father-in-law, he told me about how cow brains were used “in the old days” when
he was a young man and his mother would prepare them chopped up with eggs. He explained how “back then” people were poor
and nothing was wasted from a butchered animal where even the blood of a pig
was prepared, cooked and consumed. Cow
brains are not easy to find, probably due to the mad cow disease scare, but
once in a long while you will see them for sale at specialty grocery
stores. He mentioned that he would be
willing to fix them if I would try them.
Hmmm…I told him that I was willing as long as he told me upfront what he
was having me taste – this is because once a long time ago he snuck in cow
tongue for me to try.
I’ll leave you with
another scene from a different favorite movie of mine – Stand and Deliver
– where the students’ math teacher is preparing them brains the night before to
eat while they study in preparation for their big “redo” test.
Links to some Brain Recipes:
Cajun Fried Brain
http://realcajunrecipes.com/recipes/cajun/fried-brain/799.rcr
Cajun Fried Brain
http://realcajunrecipes.com/recipes/cajun/fried-brain/799.rcr
Sauté Beef Brain
http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/beef-brain-sauteed-in-spiced-sauce-semur-otak-81657
http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/beef-brain-sauteed-in-spiced-sauce-semur-otak-81657
Deep Fried Brains
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/05/deep-fried-brains-recipe.html
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/05/deep-fried-brains-recipe.html