"Goat Head Soup" or "Manish Water" is a staple of Jamaican and/or Caribbean culinary culture.
The fact that the video from TLC or "The Today Show" (I could not tell) merely shows how insulated mainstream American culture is to the broader reality.
If you have a "farmers market" in your town with any sort of international diversity - go to the meat department and check out all of the animal parts that they sell.
The video cast "goat heads" as the meal for "cheapscates'. About a week ago I attended an annual Christmas party with Jamaicans of a professional class. They served "Goat Head soup", thus proving that it has little to do with class or "cheapness". It is a cultural issue.
(The guy in the video served the head whole. In "Manish Water" they use a meat cleaver and chop up the head - bones and all - into small pieces)
Before our beef, chicken and pork were grown in little packets in "the grocery store" nearly all parts of the animal was used rather than discarded. Even today a good portion of the left over parts are ground up and finds its way into some item for ingestion by humans or animals.
As an American that was infused in a foreign culture due to marriage - I learned that when it comes to food - if it doesn't kill ya - and SOMEBODY likes it - it doesn't hurt to try it.
In eating "Manish Water" I have seen goat teeth, ear parts and other portions that I could only guess.
Just as I tell my children - "Its not that YOU DON'T LIKE IT'........you are just not hungry enough".
Deprive anyone of food for about 5 days and I assure you that they would eat any piece of meat from any source - quickly losing their inhibitions when there are no other options.
The same mutton that makes up the more meaty part of the body is found on the skull. It just has certain other parts and shapes that are less appealing if you try to figure out what it is.
And there there is "Cow Cod Soup"..................here you have try really, really hard not to think about what you are eating.
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