I'M ALL EARS

Souse is a lousy word. SOWSS. Sounds like a drunk. In the old WC Fields movie, 'The Bank Dick', Fields plays Egbert Souse, but he pronounces it sooSAY, classing it up, but with his big red nose and ruddy cheeks, everyone just keeps referring to him as SOWSS, anyway. I feel the same about the classic, perhaps notorious, stew, of the same name, found in Caribbean countries and southern African-American homes, and usually eaten on the weekends. You just can't tart this up. When blues shouter Bessie Smith hollered, “Gimme a pig foot and a bottle of beer,” well, that's kind of how I feel when I end up at the 'GREAT SOUSE' truck at four in the morning outside the strip club. But let me backtrack for a moment. I've had souse all over this town, ENT souse (ears, nose, and throat), tongue and tail souse, diner souse, haute souse (it can be done), even had the no-pork chicken souse (why?). I've even had it at the ice cream store on NW 27th Ave. (it pairs nicely with Pistachio). I'm convinced the vinegary innards stock is both a hangover cure AND cause, like the booze it so beautifully complements. Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to eat souse on a warm Saturday or Sunday afternoon, sober and not hungover, from a nice ceramic bowl with a silver soup spoon, catching every rainbow-ed oil slick of pig juice with your spoon before it drips down your chin. Washing it down with cool, sweetened iced tea while dabbing one's moist brow with a crisp white linen napkin. Personally, I've never seen it done, but I'm sure someone, somewhere, has done it, and was perfectly satisfied. I can only say that this is a big mistake, and that this food cries out for cold beer and a bottle of gin (listen to Bessie, Lady Day, etc., their wisdom is unmatched, my chirren). (Warning-Pictures not for the faint of heart or stomach.)

Three top pork souses and a chicken souse for the non-swine-eaters.

Many Parts

Some Parts

Nothin but ears, baby

Chicken, but still a mouthful

Gimme a pig foot, and two scoops
of Rum Raisin on a waffle cone