Oh, the things people eat. American palates have become so persnickety over the past 75 years that most of us would scoff at the foods our grandparents probably ate when they were young.

You’ll be hard pressed, for example, to find a store that sells jars of pig’s feet floating in vinegar or canned tripe packed in milk. Yet it’s funny how certain foodstuffs such as Spam, venison jerky and foie gras don’t set off the gag sphincters in people who would today turn their backs on a bowl of duck-blood borscht with a plate of snails sitting beside it.

As my father used to say when trying to convince me to eat raw clams, “It’s all in the mind.”

Those resounding words led me to try all sorts of different foods throughout my adult life. And I am gratefully sated. But what sort of brainpower does it take to scarf down the brains of a calf? Or the snout of a goat? Or a 69-cent cheeseburger from AM-PM for that matter?

In talking with friends and relatives who have traveled to exotic lands and came back with outrageous tales about the local cuisine, I have to wonder how quickly I would turn in my food-critic hat if I wrote for their local papers. Even in my own travels to places like the Caribbean and Eastern Europe, I’ve stumbled across sights and scents that I could never ingest in this lifetime.

From those personal accounts and a little research, it’s apparent that the stomach cannot distinguish between a chicken breast and poodle protein. Only the mind does. Consider the following:

Cock’s combs are often used to garnish poultry dishes in rural French and Italian restaurants. Though chewy, they are considered a tasty delicacy.

Wander slightly off the tourist path in Istanbul and you’ll come eye to eye with more than belly dancers in the restaurants. A typical prefixed meal includes lamb eyeballs dressed in a traditional Turkish cream sauce.

In Central and South America, iguana meat is sautéed and turned into a delightfully gastronomic casserole that is eaten with bread or rice.

Australian aboriginals commonly eat chopped, marinated kangaroo tails and sugar ants.

Pickled ram’s testicles and decomposed shark meat are among the traditional Icelandic foods that present special challenges for tourists.

In parts of Asia and Africa, locusts are typically dredged in wild honey to give them extra flavor.

And people still reportedly breed dogs for food throughout severely impoverished areas of Korea and China. North American animal rights groups are fighting to ban the practice.

Bear paws and filets remain a highly prized dinner in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Fresh snake meat is readily available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Phoenix, Arizona.

Chinese delicacies include shark fin soup and pigeon soup, while we here in the West have a fondness for goose liver paté and frog legs.

Finally, sniff around rural Lousiana and you’ll find langue bourée — stuffed beef tongue that cuts with a fork when properly braised.

Bon appétite!