I'd eat a dog. Hell, I'd eat a kitten if it came with roast potatoes and gravy. Basically I'd try almost anything. While in France, as my friends were opting for a table full of steak béarnaise, I went for horse- the fine and noble steed. As Hannibal Lecter said "it is important…always to try new things".
So why do so many people have a problem with trying something new? My old line manager gagged when trying some of my venison sausage (insert joke here) all because I told her it was deer and not a cute little piglet. Even food programs don’t do the cause any favours with visual delights such as America's "Top Chef Masters" and it's selection of famous chefs who were forced to create 'street-food' from offal including cow heart, tongue, tripe and pig's ears in a way that denounced this food as revolting. The same unfortunately applies to our very own 'F word' with pig's head terrine and cow heart being brave for the chef to serve to the audience/diners
Ask your granddad and he'll give you a recipe for tripe, 100 % guaranteed.
Ask your grandma about a tongue sandwich (actually, maybe not). Travel north of the border and take part in a Burns' supper to see the splendour that is haggis neeps and tatties served a million different ways.
Everyone loves pate, but serve a plate of pigs liver and see faces drop. Chicken breasts, fillet steak, lamb chops all have something in common – price. Chicken livers, oxtail and lamb's heart, all available from supermarkets nationwide at a fraction of the price, although the old quote goes "life's too short to bone oxtails" but you get the point.
So next time you walk down the aisles of your supermarket, instead of reaching for the pork chops, pick up a pack of calf's liver and try it for yourself.
This is an interesting topic. It's something I come across a lot when I'm travelling, because people seem to look down on other cultures who make use of all the animals they have (China, for example, where you will find skewered baby ducks, baked turtles that you can eat right out of the shell, and dog on most menus) and use this as some form of racism.
ReplyDeleteI was vegetarian for eleven years, and I started eating meat again last year. I have a pretty weak stomach for meat because my body isn't used to it, but I'm still on a mission to try everything once. If I'm ever in a place where dog is being served, I'll eat dog. And I'd absolutely love to try snake - its supposed to be amazing. I guess I just think that if you eat meat, you eat meat. Just because it comes without a face in the supermarket, it doesn't mean it was any less alive once. And so who cares? Dog, cow, pig....they're all the same. People should get over their silly prejudices.
Natalie x