10 head dishes that taste good (maybe)

Heads, and bits of heads - neglected parts that usually don't make it into food, despite actually being quite delicious in many cases. One rule of thumb for choosing dishes at good restaurants - if it doesn't look good, it probably tastes good. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to sell it.

In no particular order:

1. Fish head curry.

Well-known in South East Asia, and frequently shunned by children who don't know any better. Once they try it - usually with eyes screwed up and trembling in trepidation - they realise why all the adults are slurping like there's no tomorrow. This is true of the curry version, the asam (tamarind) version, and the version with rice vermicelli (beehoon for the initiated).

Combine 1 red snapper head with curry paste, cardamom, turmeric, ginger and many many other spices. Add tamarind (reduce the curry paste) if needed, stew for a long time, scoff with rice or rotis. I like the version with grouper heads, because the cheeks and lips are bigger and thicker, but I shouldn't really. My better half's (we'll call her the Pretty Lady) mother (to avoid confusion, the Pretty Lady's Mummy) loves the eyes.

2. Brawn.

As food (er, good, Freudian typo - sorry) as the finest foie gras, according to Rick Stein (TV chef extraordinaire) and I have to agree. Brawn is pressed pig's head terrine, where the head (brain removed first) is simmered with spices (salt - yes, it's a spice; peppercorns, herbs - juniper berries in one version I found; and saltpetre as a preservative) until the meat comes off the bone. The meat is picked through and sliced, and the gelatine from the bones sets the lot into a sliceable, savoury mass. True British food, and most Brits are unaware of it, and wouldn't eat it even if they were aware of it.

3. Prawn heads.

The best and sweetest part of all. It's hard to eat them properly here in Britain (where a prawn is a headless strip of flesh that is pre-cooked and stinks of boric acid), but in Asia, where you get bigger prawns, they are a real treat. Peel the prawn head off a cooked prawn (careful not to rip the bladder) and slurp gently. The best bit of a male prawn's head is the bit over the neck, which has some sweet flesh, and the best bit of a female prawn's head is the roe. Prawn heads also make fantastic stock and prawn paste.

4. Tête de veau.

Okay, any bovine nervous tissue, as well as the flesh near any nervous tissue, is probably not too good for you now because of mad cow disease. However, the French make tête de veau, which is a piece of flesh taken from the calf's head (it runs from the forehead to the tip of the nose), which is then rolled up with the thymus gland and some of the tongue. This roll is poached in a light court bouillon, then served with sauce ravigote. London's Racine restaurant serves it with some calf's brain on top. Very bad for you (nervous tissue from any creature is probably a no-no now because of prion diseases), but very tasty.

5. Goat's head soup.

Full disclosure: I've never tried this yet. However, as it was immortalised as the name of the classic Rolling Stones album, it must have had some oomph to it. The album title refers to a Jamaican dish also known as Mannish water. According to various recipes I've been able to find, the goat's head is first charred to get rid of the hair (after being first debrained), and then charred further to cook the meat. The flesh is then flensed off the skull, and chopped. To make the goat's head soup, the chopped meat is simmered with potato, yam, garlic, spring onions, green banana, and Scotch bonnet peppers. There's a Nigerian version that's more of a stew, done with tomatoes and chilli.

6. Cockscombs.

Gelatinous bits of meat that taste a little gamey (not like chicken at all). A lot like chicken feet or duck's tongue (see below), in that most of the flavour comes from the sauce or marinade used, with the flesh itself contributing mostly texture.

7. Duck's tongue.

Cooked many ways in Chinese cuisine - my favourite is steamed and then stewed with rice wine, five spice powder and ginger. The collagen melts out of the tongues to give the sauce a lovely smooth texture, which goes very well with the crunch of the spike of cartilage that attaches the tongue to the bone.

8. Icelandic sheep's head jam.

Something the Icelanders eat during Þorri, which is a midwinter festival. The sheep's heads are salted, boiled, flensed, blended with brains and made into terrine, which is then either eaten fresh or preserved in whey. Very similar to brawn, as you can tell. The heads are also sometimes eaten whole, in which case the boiling period is shorter and the whole head is served at the table.

9. Lion's head meatballs.

Okay, these aren't made from heads. But they do taste good though - meatballs (big ones) made with pork and crab meat, then simmered in broth with some chinese leaf added at the last minute to create the manes.

10. Live (or recently deceased) monkey brains.

The story about special tables that strap the monkey in place live, so that its skull can be opened up and its brain eaten while it is still alive is probably apocryphal, and untrue. I've heard that it is possible get it in some parts of China (Yunnan, and other parts of the south west near the Burmese border) though, where they butcher the monkey and marinate the fresh brain in mao tai before bringing it to the table. This story may also be apocryphal, as I've yet to encounter anyone who's actually had it.