The Head

I thought I’ve had my fair share of eating weird cuisines as I grew up,
Dad used to force sis and I to swallow everything that’s edible, no matter how nasty it tasted.

“Imagine those poor people in Africa with nothing to eat, be grateful you still have food.” he used to say.

I was wrong.

It’s the first time I’ve eaten a shark’s head.
Prepared in two separate ways, the flesh was scraped from the skull and cooked in yam broth.
What’s left on the skull was a thick, juicy, jello-like layer of collagen.

Yes, all those precious collagen.

Collagen has great tensile strength, and is the main component of fascia, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, bone and skin. Along with soft keratin, it is responsible for skin strength and elasticity, and its degradation leads to wrinkles that accompany aging – Wikipedia

To me, the head resembled a dinosaur fossil served up on a platter, its hollow eyes staring accusingly at me.
For it was man’s appetite which stripped it to its stark, naked bones.