Tongue served in slices didn’t go over well in my house; despite the tender meat, it still looked a bit too much like tongue, even for my husband, who grew up in England eating sliced tongue sandwiches (because it was a the cheapest deli meat and could be bought in small quantities). It also was almost too tender.

But spicy Mexican lengua has worked out great, a la lengua tacos (my husband and I just make a taco salad instead of filling tortillas). One thing I DON’T DO now, though, is show the tongue to my son and his friends before it is all cooked, spiced, and diced up (easy to do while he’s in school), otherwise I face a wall of biased opposition. I simply say I made lengua tacos and never mention the English name (I have also mixed it with ground meat). Hopefully by the time my son catches on to the translation of lengua, the issue of what body part it is won’t be an issue and he’ll just accept it as good taco meat.