Tricky

Okay. My first thought was that I'd ask whether anyone else had idly wished that they could lick their own nostrils but I was worried about the responses this might elicit. I'm obviously steering well clear of commenting on the size of the tongue but this led to possibly more profitable waters. 

I know that we generally eat pork tongue in sandwiches, usually at funerals, but I went looking for beef tongue information. I have a feeling we cooked it at college - I trained at a time when offal played a far bigger part in the diet of the country. From memory we boiled it in a court-bouillon and served it cold with a vinaigrette. I'm reasonably sure that I also did it for a buffet in Scarborough; the whole "aspic glaze and wafer thin cucumber cut into interesting shapes" scene.

According to Wikipedia "Some countries, including Canada and specifically the province of Alberta, export large quantities of beef tongue". This left me with loads of questions including "How does Alberta have more beef tongues than anyone else?". Reading on suggested that the USA might be the main beneficiary of Alberta's exports - it seems that tongue toast is a feature of meals at any part of the day. I don't remember seeing it during my brief visits to the Americas but I might not have been looking in the right places. And it's really a real dish rather than some smutty Americanism. 

So I've managed to find something to write about, I've kept it above the waist and I've not gone with the whole "write your own caption" thing because that might have got messy. I'm feeling rather virtuous.