EATING CRUSHED DRAGON

Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy might; thou didst break the heads of the dragons on the w aters. Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan, thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

Psalms 74:12-14

Dragon meat is expensive, and it has a “grown up” sorta flavor, too. If for no other reasons than these, we only serve it twice a year. You can be sure that if dragon is on the menu, something big is going on at the James’ house.

Michaelmas is marked with a roasted tongue of the defeated foe. And a few months later Theophany makes stewed Dragon Jowl an appropriate celebration. We like ours over rice- preferably Jasmine.

Seeing that in Christ’s baptism the serpents, leviathans and dragons of the deep had their heads crushed, we will glory in the victory by consuming the vanquished enemy. There is very little that is edible on the head of the dragon- too much bony plate and grizzle. But the jowl muscles are plentiful and quite good. There are of course the brains- usually service scrambled in eggs, but I don’t like ‘em and they’re really bad for you. The jowls, on the other hand, are just the thing.

I’ve ordered a single slab of jowl from our Romanian source. There are cheaper sources, but bottom line: I trust their butchering.

Skill, experience and a concern for those who will be eating your work are necessary when preparing Dragon Jowl. Years spent next to the creature’s fire gland guarantee an intensely hot and spicy dish, but you don’t want any (and I mean any!) of the gland itself. Oh no! A particularly painful death, there. The point being that you need to know your Dragon monger.

I know a good one, if anyone is interested.