Mystery item at Madrid tapas place

[E Eto]

I'm just wondering what this is. I tried to get an explanation at the bar I was at, but I still couldn't figure it out.

Here's a larger version of the photo: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/43...

[MMRuth]

Wow - did you taste it? It looks almost mummified.

[E Eto]

No I didn't taste it. My accompanists were a little too afraid to try it, and I didn't want to do it alone.

[amopdx]

weird.. how did they try to explain it at the bar?

[butterfly]

Those are zarajos. A specialty of Cuenca (in La Mancha), but you can get them all over Madrid as bar food. They are suckling lamb intestines wrapped around sticks (from grapevines, I think). They cut them and fry them up...

P.S. That's oreja (pig ears) on the other plate.

[mstinawu]

I'm pretty much up to try anything at least once and those things look pretty creepy. My favorite Taiwanese soup is pork intestine/blood soup in Taiwan, but the intestines in there don't look as scary as the one posted in the picture--all wrapped up in a weird slimy ball. Maybe I'll try it out though just to say I did when I go to Spain in September. :o

[butterfly]

If it's any consolation, they aren't slimy...

[Cinnamon]

I'd be glad I didn't bite.

[Steve]

First we have ice cream cones
then corn dogs

Hmmm... lamb intestines on a stick..... could this be the next 'to go' food sensation?

[paulj]

Europeans have been stretching lamb intestines out on a stick, and making music, for a long time :-)

[maria lorraine]

I've seen a lot working in food publishing lo these many years, and that has to be
single oddest food photo I have ever laid my eyes on.

But that is the wonder of travel. I understand why you didn't try one.
But the teeniest little bite may have been interesting.