Ella shuffled through a cookbook on our bookshelf, left by one of the former tenants. “Can we make brains today?” she asked. “Tongue?” No and no, I said. “Whole steamed fish?” she asked. “Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t know if the fishmonger cleans out the guts for you here in France. It’s not like in America.”

In the several butcher shops on our block and in the open-air markets held in our quartier twice a week, rabbits, unrefrigerated like so much else, hang with everything except their fur, their eyes and paws intact, looking like they are going to jump into a bush and hide. Chickens often don’t lose their heads, keeping also their claws and remnants of feathers. Crabs will scurry when poked, as will large shrimps. And yes, we nudge them a little, sometimes, because everybody else does. I searched a French foodie blog for instructions for cooking live gambas, a kind of large shrimp. The site recommended I saute them while still alive. Alternatively, I could guillitine their wriggling necks. Watching a YouTube video is as close as I’ll get to that French historical ritual.

I’m going to tell you something I’m not proud of: I am more squeamish than my nine-year-old daughter. I watch the rest of my family order blood sausage at a restaurant, foie gras (and liver of most other description), and I discreetly pass.. I tried escargot, though. Once. And how was I rewarded? At the dinner table, my throat started to hurt. My swallowing became painful, my air barely escaping through my mouth. Later, I realized I wasn’t inflicted with an abrupt case of tonsilitis. I discovered my only allergy ever: to snails, otherwise known as slugs, a kind of garden pest I used to pull off my vegetables between my thumb and index finger. I can’t help thinking my body was rejecting this foreign object because it was, well, so strange.

I’ll give in to Ella’s begging for tete de veau (cow’s head, pictured above, in its uncooked form) at a restaurant, but it is not something I will try at home. Really, I think the cookbook should come with a disclaimer