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Horse burger Yesterday, I took this photograph in Holborn, London, advertising the (Australian influenced?) cuisine of this pub:
Click to enlarge, and then note the horse burger. It’s starting to look as if the main long-term effect of the Great Horse Meat Scandal upon Britain is that the British diet will be expanded. The politicians huff and puff. We get to discover how good horse can taste (that being a piece that was linked to by Instapundit yesterday).
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Not to offend but I’ve tried just about everything else that flies, swims, walks and crawls. Don’t understand the aversion to eating horse. I’d try it at least once (may have already with out even knowing it…Taco Bell anyone?)
My fellow Texans look at me like I just became an open advocate for NAMBLA when I talk about eating horse, but the Comanche did and for good reason, the same reason that my Hungarian wife and all her family does — it’s damned good meat.
Useful link – I’ll have to go and try one :-).
When it comes to edible species, I also seem to be working on “collecting the set”. Reindeer’s probably my favourite, so far.
There’s an emotional attachment to horses for a great many people. It’s just meat…but it came from some noble steed kind of thing. It’s no different than asking people in the West to eat cat or dog. I’ve eaten all kinds of critters, but I won’t eat cat or dog because I think of my own pets. It’s irrational, but there you go.
The problem with horsemeat is that some horses have been friendly to me.
That’s why i try not to give cattle, pigs, etc any opportunity to be friendly to me.
I have long thought that Ducks are cute, particularly in the way they appear to glide over the water but you see they are in fact paddling like hell when you watch them from above. I have also long thought ducks were delicious. I have no difficulty reconciling those two things.
A few years back we bought a Findus Lasagne when we were in Tuscany. Oh well this will be the bog standard stuff we get at home we thought, but let’s get it back to the apartment and get it down with a drop of wine, we’re hungry. Turned out to be the best frozen Lasagne I had ever eaten. Horsemeat? could have been, I assumed at the time that it was specially made for Italians, who know their food, not us Brits.
I am very fond of Venison. I have no problem with eating Bambi. And there is this place…
http://www.qype.co.uk/place/910461-Zulu-Cafe-Bristol
Just down the hill from me. I assumed they were having a Giraffe the first time I clocked the place (but it isn’t on the menu. How would you get neck of Giraffe in an oven anyway?) and that it was all beef. But no… it’s all real, and they do Camel as well apparently. Zebra must taste a bit like horse though surely? I must try one.
Snorri Godhi’s feelings are so similar to mine that he could have plucked them out of my mind. It’s not just cuteness. Little lambs are cute, but I eat them without (much) compunction. It’s having known several horses, well, ponies in my case, by name, from when my daughter went riding. I think a few of them may have known me and they certainly knew my daughter and appeared happy to see her.
I have eaten horse many years ago, in France, and it tasted fine. I won’t criticise anyone for eating it, still less try to prevent them from doing so. But I would rather not.
And I do wish to continue to lay stress on the point that the deception was the scandalous thing about the horsemeat scandal, not the fact that horses had been eaten.
Natalie: yes, we agree.
Reindeer are presumably friendly to Lapps, but none has been friendly to me, so i very much enjoyed a reindeer kebab in Helsinki many years ago. One of the finest meals i ever had.
OTOH various big cats and even cape buffaloes have been friendly to me in zoos, so i would not eat them. And of course cats+dogs.
Well, I’m not eating Trigger!
Deal with it. 🙂
And if G-d had wanted us to eat cat (even Big Cat) or Dog he wouldn’t have made one of them a God itself and the other one Man’s Best Friend.
I also won’t eat Rat. Winston Smith and Indy’s dad were quite right. Revolting. Nor Mouse, because although it’s cute and as heck, it’s also not very clean.
I also won’t eat Bunny, but I grew up on rabbit and if it were available in the supermarket now I wouldn’t object at all. (Tastes like chicken. *g*)
On the other hand, I simply don’t understand the Jewish abhorrence of shellfish. LOL
Time for my favorite recipe, methinks.
Skippy’s relatives taste good! Puts a hop into your step. I wonder what kiwis from NZ taste like?
In Japan, one can eat horse sashimi or sushi. It is called Sakura-niku (cherry meat).
Turducken, only with camel, lamb and eggs. Very festive. Only, where’s the shrimp? I can’t have a proper feast without shrimp. And lobster. And crab. And fried oysters. Yum. 😉
Alisa, BBQ season will be upon us as soon as the ~10″ of snow melts. If you’ll bring the camel, I think I can find some lamb somewhere.
Of course, everyone’s invited. :>))
I mean, of course, eating the kiwi bird, not the people. Though, now that I think of it…
Well, Nick, I’m not going to eat people I like. And why would you eat something you don’t like? :>)
Australians are generally fairly reluctant to eat things like kangaroo and other native fauna. I think this dates back to the early days of the settlement, when there were food shortages. Once the agriculture properly got going, then there were proper meats like beef and lamb to eat, and to eat kangaroo reminded you of the days when they were in short supply, or indicated that you were too poor to afford them. Kangaroo burgers are more often found in Australian theme restaurants overseas than actually in Australia.
Michael: isn’t kangaroo a protected species?
Julie: damn, yet another idea that was not invented by Arabs – oh, the humanity.
BTW, only 10″? Ha. Cue in the ‘this reminds me of the winter of 19…’ shtick…
Anyway, these puny ten inches melting will give us enough time to obtain the proper multicultural substitute for boiled eggs.
Alisa: Not remotely, no. They exist in enormous numbers and at times are considered pests. There are a number of different species. Numbers vary, but the four largest species (for which the word “kangaroo” tends to be reserved – smaller ones are wallabies) all exist in abundant numbers.
While part of this issue is the irrational (and understandable) reluctance to eat horse meat, I also think part of it is outrage at discovering one wasn’t eating what one thought one was eating.
The crime is indeed one of misrepresentation and fraud. This is serious, and there should be an investigation and the people responsible should be found, charged, and punished. However, as far as I can tell, nobody whatsoever has actually suffered any harm due to this scandal. This means that the appropriate level of outrage is somewhat less than say, the Stafford Hospital NHS scandal.
Julie, what does Bald Eagle taste like, if we’re talking of eating national icons? And in todays multi-cultural America, is a white-headed eagle the appropriate symbol? Perhaps you should adopt a parrot.
No, Michael, you are wrong. The real reason we don’t farm skippy and family is that the necessary higher fences would be much more expensive, AND if the kangaroo turns aggressive, keep him away from the boxing gloves!
Alisa, by all means we should have the “hundred-year-old eggs.” (“Century eggs”?? Never heard them called that.) I think ours should be made either in Israel or the U.S., however. I don’t really care to be consuming lead unnecessarily.
10″ is the best we could do, sorry. It’s been a relatively light year for snow, and last year was worse, but if we could bring back 1969 or 1978 (I think it was)…. :>)
Nick G, really I’m beginning to think we should change our national mascot from the Eagle to the Budgie. Or maybe, simply, the birdie, a.k.a. the shuttlecock. :>(((
Well, it had better not be the Budgie! That’s an Australian Bird! (Comes from the aboriginal word Budgerigar.) No wonder I’m always putting exclamation marks!! everywhere!!
Julie, I think it was in 94 that we had just over 20″ in MO…
I’ll go with Benjamin Franklin and propose the wild turkey for our national symbol… which we should then be free to shoot and eat, providing food to the People and a useful reminder to the Powers That Be.
I’m with PFP on that!
(Nick, I’m borrowing some of your exclamation points!)
When you return them, don’t forget to rinse and drain them first¡¡¡¡
🙂
Nick, I certainly don’t want to go swiping native Ozzians! (Why “Oz,” anyway? I’ve always wondered.)
Perhaps we should just accept the pigeon. (No caps, you notice.)
Alisa, where in MO? I’ve been looking for a state with rain and snow that doesn’t glow in the dark (Illinois…unfortunately, it’s too Near Chicago.)
Columbia. Half way between KC and STL right in the middle of the middle.
Ah. That could work. Heh…Tornado Alley, of course. Maybe we can import an unused missile silo from Kansas. 🙂
@PFP: Didn’t Ben Franklin also write a piece praising the rattlesnake as the USA’s national animal (as seen on the Gadsden flag)?
Julie: 🙂
Yep.
Another argument against horsemeat just came to mind: you don’t want to risk eating a Senator.
Oh dear, Snorri, I don’t think I’d better pursue that line of thought…. :>))!!
Why not, Julie? Think of it: a President, stuffed with a Senator, stuffed with a Congressman, stuffed with a governor,…
…garnish with a few journalists…
Forget the journalists- you want some gentlemen from The Times! Though I think you’ll have a hard time eating any of those foul things.
Australians- Aussies- Oz. Nominational evolution- Nomvolution! What could be simpler, Chic Julie?