The meat spectrum

If you lump sheep in with 14, and find a place for frogs and turtles, I've had everything thru 15 except ostrich. Wouldn't be averse to it, just never had the opportunity. Have not knowingly eaten squirrel, although I wouldn't pass it up in a brunswick stew.

Not generally a fan of liver, but my mom fixed it about once a month when I was a kid, because beef liver is supposedly a healthy food. I might eat turkey livers cut up in a giblet gravy, and chicken livers on the grill aren't bad every once in awhile.

Never ate intestines, though. My mom grew up eating chitlins, and she swore when got to be an adult, she'd never do it again. Have had Rocky Mountain oysters and would have no problem eating them again, if I could find them.

 

Agreed. Same with things like squirrel, frog and turtle. They're similar to other items on the list.
If you've eaten rabbit, for example, there's a good chance you'd eat or have eaten squirrel. Both are small game you'd either trap/shoot yourself or find in regional dishes. Frog (and frog legs) could fall into the same category. Turtle would be somewhere around 4.5 on the list, I'd imagine, sort of the bridge between sea and land meat. Not as common as cow or pig, but certainly not something you'd have to have an ethical debate about like Nos. 15-20.

 

Reindeer taste wonderful.

 

The meat (and offal) we decide to eat is a cultural thing. Europeans eat horse and there are a few restos in Toronto that serve it.
I'm sure that given the situation, I'd eat dog or cat. #20 is a no-no.

I love beef heart, sweetbreads, lamb (my fav) and rabbit.

Never heard of anyone eating intestines. They're usually the casing for sausages.

Bull's testicles in Western Canada are known as Prairie Oysters.

The only thing I'm not sure I'd eat is brain. Just strikes me as too ghoulish

 

These two sentences don't line up. Anyway, menudo and haggis are made with stomach and intestines.

 

Where is roadside dead deer on the list? A friend wants to know.

 

This thread makes me ... uneasy

 

I do not like liver - other than foie gras. I have tried to eat intestines and have not enjoyed eating them

I have eaten - and I like - Rocky Mountain oysters. I cannot recall ever eating any dish overtly made from the penis of any animal so strike that from the list.

I have tried eating lion. There was a restaurant in DC that used to feature strange meats on a weekly/monthly basis. I was there once duing "Lion Week" and ordered it. It was truly nasty; I shall not try it again.

Kangaroo, goat and sheep/lamb are all quite good.

In Peru, I was served one of the "national delicacies". It was a spit roasted guinea pig. I took a bite to be polite; it was not very good at all.

The WORST thing I tasted was a "national delicacy" in Iceland called "Fermented Shark". Here is the deal:


In November, you catch a shark and then immediately bury it in the sands on the beach. Remember Iceland is sitting on an active underwater "volcano" so the beach sand is warm to the touch - not hot but warm.

In February just as the days are getting longer, you dig up your shark to ceolebrate the arrival of spring and your slice it up and eat it without cooking it. The smell is beyond awful; the taste is not much better. To make i worse, you chase it with a shot of carraway seed flavored jagermeister.

I draw the line at cannibalism...

 

Since when is goat meat exotic?

 

I had lamb for lunch today at the Lebanese restaurant. I don't consider that exotic at all. Every supermarket carries lamb chops.
I make a mean Nigerian pepper soup with goat. Have to go to the mercado to get it - chivo.
Any real taco truck/cart should have cabeza, lengua, tripas and buche.
Rabbit is farmed and more commercially available, but the only time I've had squirrel is with friends who hunt. Been a log time since I've had it.

Roasted a goose for Xmas this year. Actually a couple days after Xmas because I had the flu.

I would eat horse. Haven't had the chance.

I'm not saying I've liked it all, but I'll try just about anything.

 

Not quite as exotic, but the Islamorada Fish Company restaurant inside some Bass Pro Shops has some different stuff on the menu. They serve alligator, venison stuffed mushrooms (which are quite tasty) and a couple of other game type animals. They used to have bison burgers and elk steaks, but it looks like they've dropped those from the menu.

 

Might've told this story before, but it's still funny.
Was talking to some high school baseball players at practice one day, and one of them was ribbing another for being 45 minutes late to school that morning. Seems the kid, definitely a redneck if ever there was one, saw a deer on the side of the road on his way to school. He stopped to check it out, saw it was a fresh, clean kill, and spent more than an hour cleaning it and putting it in the back of his truck.