Taboo foods - summary

[chickenfeet]

So the least likely to be eaten items in the recent polls were Donkey, Seagull, Rat, Cat, Dog and Primate. No real surprises there.

There were a few results that surprised me though. I was surprised that so many people had eaten horse (9) and kangaroo (24); the former because of sentimental associations of horse and the latter because I was surprised that so many people had had the opportunity. The biggest surprise though is that 89% of you had eaten raw fish. Of course if one excluded the vegetarians from the sample, the proportion would be even higher. So sushi/sashimi, which as recently as 20 years ago was regarded as downright weird by a pretty high proportion of people outside Japan or Korea, must now be considered entirely mainstream, more so indeed than that English cultural icon, blue Stilton.

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Hey, I missed this one! In my Gallicised hat I've eaten horse, and from history know that what happened in the Germanic areas was the Church banning it because of the old horse sacrifices (see the burial of Clovis' father and acounts in the Heimskringla). I've eaten reindeer and whale but drew the line at seal because of the possibility of selkie blood.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Horse eating didn't stop, though. It's discussed in the 720s in letters from St Boniface to the pope, when B is consolidating his position as Apostle to the Germans. And when I actuially went to Fulda, horse was still on the menu! That was in 1991.

I think you're right about sushi/sashimi. But it may have something to do with your particular demographic, too. Lots of coastie liberals in the US, and mostly people with good educations and moderately comfortable standards of living.

[gregclow.livejournal.com]

My experience eating horse was when I was still in elementary school. I had a friend who was second-generation European of some sort, so his parents ate it occassionally, and I tried some at his house one day. I don't really recall what it tasted like, but I do remember that I didn't really think much of it in terms of any sort of sentimental attachment to horseys. It was just meat.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

There's a good point there about opportunity (maybe knowledge/emotions too.)

I hadn't had good sushi until about two years ago in Montreal. It both has me wanting more, and spoiled for the stuff around here. I am sure I ate "unusual" things that year in Iceland but probably didn't know what they were. And, I ate a lot of fish and lamb there that was so good that again, spoiled for it here.

I don't think I could knowingly eat horse or dog... too close to people. And for the same reason, I had squid in Montreal, and now I can't since I told my dad and he said, "but they are intelligent, Ang." I don't know if they are or not but I couldn't now.

Other things like insects or rats an ick factor. Most of the other things on your list, opportunity.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I don't know about giant squid but the regular eating size ones that I have cleaned had remarkably little with which to be intelligent. Certainly far less than a pig or a cow. Have you ever seen anyone selling squids' brains?

smile

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

they don't seem as restricted location wise as us monkeys.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1529397.stm

(I didn't actually know that until you commented. It's a kneejerk. Comment google comment Google...)

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Heh, you knew I'd reply to this. Squids and other cephalopods are considered the most intelligent of the invertebrates and do have comparatively large and more complex brains than other inverts. So much so that they're very commonly used in neurological research these days. However, they're still invertebrates, so you can get away with doing more to them than you could, say, a fish. They're quite smart and there's plenty of evidence that they can learn and display social behaviour usually associated with vertebrates.

Regarding the sushi thing, over here it seems to be regarded as an "enlightened" food or something. Sort of a thing where one eats it if one is socially aware and health conscious.

[pyroclasticgrub.livejournal.com]

I ate kangaroo when I was working on a hippie farm in Goulburn, Australia. We were hungry and the boys didn't have money, so they went out, shot a kangaroo and we roasted it with garlic and mint for supper the following night.

And raw fish? Totally mainstream.

I'm really glad that primate was low on the list. Unfortunately, bonobo chimpanzee is still a delicacy in Africa. :(

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

Horse: Not on any menu I've ever seen in the US. And we couldn't bring ourselves to try it in France. (Interestingly, it seems uncommon in Normandy relative to the rest of France.)

Kangaroo: Australian restaurants are trendy here in the US, and they often have 'roo as an exotic item on the menu. Tasty but way pricey.

Sushi/sashimi: Definitely mainstream in the US now, at least on the coasts. Maybe not so much in Bush's Amurka, I wouldn't know.

Cephalopod intelligence: Octopi, especially the big ones, are apparently quite intelligent and even have personalities - they actually like to play. It's a shame they are so tasty.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Australian restaurants are trendy here in the US

How odd! They are not that trendy in Australia. Oddly enough, 'roo was dead cheap when I lived there.