La cabeza de un cerdo

Today my roommate Becca and I went over to the Maestra Sandra's house for lunch. I asked what I could help with and started to "picar" or cut an onion for lunch. After chatting and cutting for about 15 minutes I realized what was right in front of me and that the pozole that we were going to eat for lunch was going to be cooked with the meat of a pig head. I soon became very curious as to how one cooks a pig head and what parts of the pig head one eats--that we were going to be eating.

Do you eat the tongue? Oh yeah---after it is cooked it is nice and tender
What about the eye balls? Did you buy the pig head with the eye ball? Yes, they're right here (as she cut them off with a knife) because you eat those too
And the brain? You just have to cut through this part right here...
So you eat all the parts of the head? Yep--we put them all in the soup... you can make tacos with them too

So, I definitely needed to get a picture of this pig head before it was torn to pieces. I learned that pozole tastes best when it is cooked with "la cabeza" of a pig. After taking all of the answers to my questions in and realizing that soon I would be eating each of these parts of the pig head in my pozole or "soup" I was doing okay. Okay, until I noticed the hair that they had cut off of the head before they cooked the pig. I seriously thought that a dead rat was on the counter, but no, it was just the skin/hair of the pig head....that's all. Yeah, that grossed me out.

I have to say that I have eaten pozole many times, but not seen it prepared, and always wondered what kind of meat it was....knowing that it was pork. I just didn't have a clue that it was the head. In the end, we had a great lunch and I finished my whole bowl of pozole, wondering with each bite what part of the pig head I was eating. I think I figured out which part was the tongue and couldn't get myself to eat those chunks, but ate the rest and have to say that it all tasted pretty much like meat.

I am thankful I got the chance to be truly Mexican before leaving in the next couple weeks and to be able to reflect on this experience.