Roger Cohen's IHT column about eating dog in China is raising hackles in the dog-loving precincts of the Internets. Let's establish first that Cohen definitely did eat dog.
The menu was predictably dog-dominated: dog paws, dog tail, dog brain, dog intestine, even dog penis. We went for a dog broth, simmered for four hours, with Sichuan pepper and ginger. It was warming, with a pepper-tingle. The meat was tender, unctuous, blander than pork, but stronger than chicken. Later, the owner, Chen Zemin, explained how the best dogs for eating had yellow coats, weighed 30 pounds, and did miracles for arthritis.
But the beagle-owing Cohen has a larger point to make.
I'm not happy that I ate dog. But I'm happy China eats dog. It so proclaims both a particularity to be prized in a homogenizing world and its rationality. Anyone who doesn't want China to eat dog must logically embrace pigs as pets.
Fair enough. Still, if I were a pig, I'd be a little concerned. I think I'd just as soon be eaten.
"...and did miracles for arthritis." Yes, and human placenta soup is great for fertility!
Cold placenta sandwiches.
Ugh, my high school math teacher did this.
She also did tai chi on the soccer field and smelled like the back of a closet.
You have to read the whole sentence: "the best dogs for eating had yellow coats, weighed 30 pounds, and did miracles for arthritis." So the best dogs for eating are the ones that can miraculously treat arthritis. You'd think it would be more lucrative to keep the dogs alive for therapeutic purposes, come to think of it.
Fry Lassie up, I'd try her.
Doggie bag etc.
What's the vegan version? Tofido?
Whatever it is, it probably tastes like dog shit.
weak.
i had tiger penis cereal for breakfast with bear adenoid tea.
I actually really want to try brains. Probably not dogs though.
Maybe bear.
Is there something wrong with me? Aside from the obvious.
Nothing that a nice plate of bear brains can't cure.
And if there is something wrong with you, you won't even know about it once the Creutzfeldt-Jakob kicks in!
I've had bear steaks before. They were delicious, like a very rich pot roast. I did have one of those mind vs stomach arguments where you try to not think about what you're eating? It's not bear, it's not bear, it's not bear, but my stomach did clench up a bit when it realized it was bear. Still, it's tasty. Squirrel heart, on the hand, just blegh.
It's weird, I used to be SUCH a finicky child when it came to eating, but I SEEK OUT exotic food - I will try anything except genitals and eyeballs.
Goons, you're in BK, right? Saul regularly has sweetbreads on the menu, fwiw. AND they have a Michelin star!
I gross my family out on a regular basis by ordering the weirdest/most difficult thing on the menu everywhere I go. Except fish, I hate fish. I would maybe tried a deep fried genital? But no go on eyeballs. Ever.
Also, Henry's End has a rattlesnake salad on the menu right right now.
Sweetbreads are thymus, though!
@oudemia: Sure, but they're weird. (Also, their texture is SUPER grody. The more you know!)
Had you encountered the bear prior to his untimely demise, I am pretty sure he would have no problems eating you, no matter how cute you are.
It's supposedly good for your circulation, so when the snow hits us, eating our pets will be healthier than whatever's left on the shelf at Trader Joe's.
A vegan freind of mine once told me of his idea for making flase dog meat titled "faux paw"
*false
This is also the answer to my question above...
They've done this for a long long time. I read a passage from the Shi Ji (Han dynasty) that mentions dog butchers from an even earlier period. For that matter, I've also seen a reference to eating bear paw in ancient Chinese literature.
But I'm still dreaming of that ideal headline: "Man Bites Dog in Topless Bar."
"Toothless Man Found in Dogless Bar"?
No comment from the Korean Awl contingent? (I kid out of love. and loneliness)