Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

Try googling that word and most likely, the word ends up in people’s list of the most-disgusting food in the world.  But I love it.  Ochsenmaulsalat is a typical menu in the German-speaking world but it’s rather hard to find.  The young or the refined find it disgusting due to its fat content.  One of my worldly bosses once commented that Ochsenmaul salat is only for old people.  For fear of sabotaging my career advancement, I didn’t dare to tell him that I, despite my age, love that stuff  - one bad vice (he already knows that I frequent the beer halls in search of authentic food) is bad enough. 

Ochsenmaul is paper-thin slices of cow’s cheek pickled in vinegar and therefore contains a lot of cartilage.  It is normally served with oil, salt, pepper, and pickled gherkin.  I was introduced to this dish by an old colleague whose eyes brighten whenever he spotted two big bowls of transparent, pinkish slices in the canteen’s salad bar.  Thinking that nothing can be more scary than the stuffs we eat in Asia, I was game to try and I was hooked.

Like anything cartilage, the meat is eaten more for its texture rather than flavour:  it is tender and oily.  The vinegar in the pickling liquid creates a sourish flavour to temper the oiliness. 

It’s normally available from the butcher or supermarkets.  We get ours from our favourite butcher, Kuhn.