So we ate a couple sheep...

     So the end of that story is a little delayed, and I apologize for that.  The next day was the great gettin'-up-mornin' for the sheep.  Half an hour after I get out of bed, the family carries sheep number 1 upstairs, past my bedroom door, and out onto the terrace just outside my window.  

     Warning, graphic content ahead.

     In Fez, division of labor is taken to pretty much the extreme.  I'd be surprised if there wasn't a guy somewhere whose job it was to tie other people's shoes.  Anyway, there are guys whose job it is to carry a knife around town and slaughter your sheep for you.  These guys came, Hajj Mohamed (the host dad) made the inital neck cut, and the "professional" slaughter guys went to work slicing open the rest of the sheep's throat.

     Sheep Number 1 was not done well.  The second sheep was slaughtered much more efficiently, though probably no more satisfactorily from the sheep's point of view.  By the way, I've made a mental list of those who've been complaining about me not updating my blog, and I'm going to make you watch the sheep video when I get home.

     So once the sheep is slaughtered, the break off a couple limbs, hang it upside down, and peel the pelt down off of it.  They remove the internal parts (putting those on a platter, to be eaten, of course) and in doing so pull the intestines out.  The intestines are by far the worst part, because they pull out yards and yards of it, and it smells like poop.  Outside my bedroom window. 

     So now it's all over but the cooking and the eating.  

     Some stuff you eat on a kebab, other stuff you eat in a tajine.  The kebab meat is a little dry, and the tajine smelled like a foot.  I almost got sick eating the tajine, because it smelled so bad.  Only at one point did I really ask which part of the sheep I was eating.  It had the consistency of smoked fish, had no real odor and no real flavor.  I asked and Khaled leans over and tells me he'll tell me after dinner.  Turns out to be sheep testicle, which, surprisingly, doesn't taste terrible.  

     So that's the end of day one.  Meanwhile, you still have to live in this house and there is a de-pelted sheep hanging from the bathroom door.  Small blood spots on the bathroom floor where it has dripped a few.  And, of course, it smells like sheep still. 

     The second day of Eid rolled around, and it is tradition to eat the head for lunch.  So they cook the head in its entirety, place it on a platter, and then put that on the table.  Fur and all.  You peel back the fur, which reveals some of the most tender meat ever.  The cheek is extremely good.  The ears were the worst part that I ate, because they're stretchy.  I didn't try the eyes--just couldn't bring myself to do it.