In countries where I’ve lived and worked, there were many unusual (from an American point of view) gastronomic features in each culture.

In Vietnam, dogs are raised in large numbers for their meat. Taken by the smelly truck load to Ha Noi, they end up for sale in the food markets, their gutted carcasses boiled whole, hair, skin and all. The farther north one goes in Vietnam, the more popular dog meat is. I remember there being only one place in Saigon in 1963 where dog meat was for sale. From Da Nang north, it is more and more a popular food item. They also eat paddy rats in the Mekong delta, sold alive in the markets so the buyer can see that it is a healthy rice-fed paddy rat, and not a sewer rat. In the VN central highlands, they served monkey brains in a particularly grisly manner – from the live animal sitting in a specially designed cage, accompanied by generous quantities of warm rice whiskey. Thankfully, it has been outlawed. Snake meat is common in Vietnam, usually fixed as a spicy curry that is quite good, eaten with rice. Embryonated duck and chicken eggs are widely consumed in the Philippines and Vietnam, usually consumed at 2AM by the boys after a night on the town. Thailand finds dog meat on the menu, along with dried toads, lizards, ant larvae, and other unrecognizable tidbits. I have partaken of all this stuff, except for the monkey brains.

In sub-Saharan west Africa, they eat fruit bats, dropped whole and uncleaned into the pot. And a large bush rat, the size of a small dog, is prized as food. I refused to eat the bat stew, and never had the opportunity to sample the bush rat.

In Paris meat markets, I remember seeing fresh skinned rabbits being sold, with the hairy paws left on to allow the buyer to see that, for sure, it is a rabbit, and not a cat.

-=-

Today the news is carrying an item that has infuriated American animal rights activists. That is the annual festival in Canete, Peru which features fried cat meat. Of course there is the irresistible urge to talk about pussy cat burgers.



The Peruvian locals talk about how cat meat promotes longevity, fertility, and the young bucks talk (hopefully) about aphrodisiac qualities. If this were really true, why would they confine the practice to a single annual festival?

-=<()>=-