In early 2020, just before the pandemic kicked into high gear, I was in Lahore, Pakistan. One night, I was hosted for dinner by a billionaire philanthropist. The dinner was at his lavish home and, as I was the guest of honor, he led me to the buffet and lifted the lid on the first dish. “This,” he announced, “is lamb brain curry. Very good.”

I tried not to be taken aback and rapidly assessed the situation. While I had no reason not to ladle a large helping of the grey goo onto my plate (I have no food allergies or intolerances, thank goodness), I had lived through the “mad cow disease” years and had a bias against brain food. On the other hand, I regularly ate haggis (still banned inexplicably in uncivilized quarters) and the thought briefly crossed my mind that this might be some kind of bizarre test...

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