Middle East Focus: Testicule au Vin, Coq au Vin: Middle East Cuisine, Serbian Cuisine……..

Arabia Deserta

Testicule au Vin, Coq au Vin: Middle East Cuisine, Serbian Cuisine……..

“OZREM, Serbia – In a remote Serbian mountain village, they're cooking up delicacies to make your mouth water — or your stomach churn. At the seventh annual World Testicle Cooking Championship, visitors watch — and sometimes taste — as teams of chefs cook up bull, boar, camel, ostrich and even kangaroo testicles. "This festival is all about fun, food and bravery," said Ljubomir Erovic, the Serbian chef and testicles gourmand specialist who organizes the bizarre cooking festival and has published a testicle cookery book. The food — politely called "white kidneys" in Serbian — is believed to be rich in testosterone. In the Balkans, it is considered to help men's libido. "The bulls' testicles are the best, goulash style," said last year's winner Zoltan Levai, stirring a metal pot heated by a wood fire and filled with vegetables and large testicles that he said were provided from a state-run slaughter house. The festival — which includes dishes like testicle pizza and testicles in bechamel sauce flavored with a variety of herbs found in the region……..”

In the Middle East, sheep testicle dishes have always been on the menu, I suspect since long before the time of Moses, since long before Abraham. They call them ‘sheep eggs’ in the Arab states, perhaps just to be polite in mixed company. They also call them that in non-mixed company. They are prepared different ways, including fried and roasted, and in sandwiches. But I have never heard of sheep testicle pizza, not even Pizza Hut-Middle East or Sbarro-Middle East has them. The East Europeans, at least the Serbs, have gotten more creative. Bechamel sauce is great with lasagna, for example, but I have never seen it mixed with sheep’s balls.

Now an appropriate question would be: is testicule au vin always related to coq au vin?
This last one was not a loaded political question related to any Middle East leaders, not consciously.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com