In 21 years I have heard of some, as well as tried, several strange dishes. However the article shocked me when within the first sentence it was talking about eating asshole! Who would want to eat that? It's is outrageous, to me at least, to think someone would actually want to consume the rear-hole of a chicken. After doing a little research though, I discovered there are stranger dishes out there, but what our culture considers different others consider a delicacy.
To begin however, I would like to talk about the strangest dish I have ever consumer, a Chamorro dish called Chelaguin. Chelaguin is cold, uncooked meat, tenderized and soaked in array of spices, At first glance, I told myself there was no way I would try this uncooked meat. After conflicting with myself for several minutes I gave it a shot and was shocked how good it actually was! Mix it with a little rice and you have yourself a delicious meal. Would I recommend trying it? Absolutely!
Every culture has their own views of what is a “do” and “do not” on what to eat. For example, consider dogs. We see dogs as pets and consider them to be “man’s best friend.” However, when you go to countries such as Taiwan and Ghana, where dog is considered a delicacy, they eat it as an everyday meal. This to me seems disgusting, especially since my favorite animal happens to be dogs. In comparison, Americans eat cow on a day to day basis. You can go to McDonalds and get a burger within minutes. If you were to go to India, cows are considered sacred. As a matter of fact, cows are venerated within the Hindu religion of India, making them holy.
In my opinion, every culture should be allowed to eat, or not eat anything they chose, but I refuse to eat an animal I have called my pet my entire life.
*Clothy, Fred. Religion in India: A Historical Introduction. New York: Routeledge, 2006.
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I definitely agree with you about not eating animals that you consider pets. I love to try new foods, but I would be very uncomfortable if someone offered me a taste of dog or cat. At least for me, it's pretty much impossible to separate the pet from the food, nor would I want to convince myself to eat something I consider a friend. I don't think I could look my cats in the eye if I ate one of their species, but that's just me. I suppose there are people who have farm animals as pets but eat other animals from the same species; I just don't see how they could do it.
ReplyDeleteHow did you come across Chelaguin? Did you eat it on one of the Marianas Islands, or did you find it locally? (I had to Google search Chamorro to figure out what it was, haha.) Does Chelaguin taste like anything in particular? You mentioned that you have tried a few strange dishes, would you recommend the others or just the Chelaguin?