Interview With A Person Who Found A Centipede In His Pig’s Head

by Alexandra Molotkow

Is it cool if I use your name, or would you rather be anonymous?
No, no, it’s cool. I’m associated with pig heads anyway, in a way. Every few months I get a pig’s head for five bucks, then I end up with too many pig heads.

So this was the first time you ever cooked a pig’s head.
The first time I was going to cook a pig’s head — to make head cheese, which is kind of a terrine — I got this big pig’s head from the St. Lawrence Market.

How much was it?
Like five bucks. Pig heads are cheap. I think that’s their primary selling point. And I was nervous, like it’s scary to have a big pig head there. I’m not a very squeamish person, but it’s kind of disturbing to have this large pig’s head on your table. So before I was going to saw it in half, the first step is to remove the tongue, which you’re kind of doing from a cavity in the back of its head. And I worked up the courage to touch this pig head, and as I was pulling the tongue out of this pig head, a centipede came out, and I screamed. I instantly became afraid that there was some giant cockroach or centipede in its brain cavity, and that I would discover this if I sawed it in half. So I put the pig head in a garbage bag and threw it out. There was no way I was going to cook that.

How big was it?
It wasn’t very big. [Holds up fingers indicating big]. I mean it wasn’t like out of a Guillermo del Toro movie. But it was big enough to be completely disturbing and terrifying.

So was that the last time you ever touched a pig’s head?
I’ve probably made about 10 or 12 pig heads since then. This was about six years ago. I’ve cooked pigs’ heads, lambs’ heads, shrimp heads.

Shrimp heads?
Yeah, you don’t normally see the heads in North America. But they have very delicious heads.

Have you had any other meat-related mishaps?
There used to be an amazing restaurant on Dundas called The Atlantic, which was kind of pay what you can, and they had crickets on the menu. So I voluntarily had crickets. I’m not grossed out by bugs, but I find the concept of eating them difficult, to the point where it affects the things I really like, like lobsters and shrimp.

Do you have any sort of psychological block when it comes to eating heads?
Not eating, it’s just the, you know — you become desensitized, when you have like your hand in the jaw of a pig, as you’re sawing it in half. You get over that after you do it a couple of times. But I have no trepidation. I don’t think that animal heads are any worse than any other meat. I think it’s all equally gruesome.

Daniel Goodbaum is a video artist from Toronto. His food videos (and more!) can be found on his website.