BEEF TOUNGE

I'm sitting here watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmer and he's talking about beef tongue. He's saying how good it is but that the texture might be off putting to some.
The whole tongue is off putting to me only because I've had a traumatizing experience with beef tongue. OK.. so how does one have a traumatizing experience with such a thing as beef tongue?
A family friend used to raise cattle in Lincoln. It was supposed to be low cholesterol beef.. I have to say it was the worst tasting beef I've ever had. Every year they would give us beef from some steer they butchered. One year we had steaks, hamburger,roasts etc. Everything was neatly wrapped in butcher paper and labeled. I came across one labeled tongue. Well, I've had tongue before.. my dad loved the stuff. I opened the wrapper and sure enough there is a large beef tongue.. complete with grass still on it!!! AHHH.....GROSS!!! So, I'm supposed to clean the grass and steer spit off this thing, cook it and peel the membrane off of it and then eat it? I think NOT! I threw the thing away. My husband thought it was hilarious. Now, I'm not squeamish.. I've cut the brain out of a deer skull for a science project and dissected anything I could get a hold of and eaten lamb brains in Italy but this.... If it had been cleaned it wouldn't have grossed me out so bad.... but when it looked like they just ripped it out of the poor steer.. no thank you.