Norwegians Feast On Sheep's Head (Yes, they eat everything)

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IT takes guts to stare your food in the eyes and then swallow them, but once Norwegians are let loose on a smoked sheep's head, they let nothing go to waste, except the bare bones of the skull.

In Voss, a tiny town in the mountains near the south-west Norwegian fjords, people have always eaten the "smalahove", which means "sheep's head" in the local dialect, and the autumn is the best season to munch this delicacy, eyes, tongues, ears and all.

"The best part are the eyes. These are the most-used muscles and therefore they taste best," said Ivar Loene, who runs Norway's only "smalahove" factory, where patrons can also savour the traditional dish in the intimate setting of a wooden chalet.

To help his guests overcome any squeamishness, the stout 64-year-old host leads by example. He plunges his knife into a sheep's eye socket, takes out the eye, cuts it in half, discards the pupil and pops the remainder in his mouth. "It just melts on the tongue," he says with a smile bordering on the ecstatic.

After being delivered by the local abbatoir, the heads are unfrozen and run through an infernal torchblowing machine which burns off the fur. They are then washed, cut open, emptied of the brain and gristle, before being salted and smoked.

They are served hot, with boiled potatoes and mashed kohlrabi.

Cephas Ralph, a Scot visiting Norway on business, admits to his scepticism.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17339152-13762,00.html