"Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn had rabbit on some menus shortly after it opened in late 2008. But after a table of guests walked out, it came off. Now the only rabbit served at the restaurant is disguised in a country terrine. 'It seems to me that the more you can make rabbit not look like rabbit, the easier it is to sell people on it,' said the restaurant's owner, Doug Crowell."
This is pretty much what my South American nephew thought the Easter Bunny was all about.
I'm also totally with them on the terrine but on culinary grounds. Rabbit alone is way too sour.
Who walks out of a restaurant because it serves rabbit? Are people upset it's overtaking lamb as the most cuddly, lovable meat on the menu?
Yeah, I am a pain in the ass vegetarian, and I wouldn't walk out of a restaurant that served rabbit, so WTF? (Also, I can guarantee that pretty much any rabbit that ends up on a menu had a life that was approximately one billion times better than that of nearly any chicken or pig. Skip the chicken! Eat the bunny!)
This article really got me, being a sort of guilty carnivore. I like the way meat tastes but I feel guilty because animals are cute. I know, I'm a wuss, but srsly, how different is eating a rabbit from eating a cat?
Cat is stringier.
Not if you keep the cat in a cage the size of the cat and feed it "right."
I hear corn feeding can get rid of much of that 'gamey' taste.
Cats are the old rabbit.
Men always freak out when they hear the rabbit died.
More-so when they find out how it was killed.
You got that right, George.
I walk out if they DON'T serve rabbit.
When I was in college, one of the dining halls had a "medieval theme night" for which they served rabbit (among other things), which got them protested by PETA. I could understand that some people love rabbits, but PETA's involvement completely baffled me. Was PETA suddenly People for the Ethical Treatment of Fluffy Animals now? What about the cows and pigs and chickens who'd been served in the dining hall for years, unprotested?
It sort of makes me think of big campaigns around specific death row prisoners that often include people who are general anti-death-penalty activists. I mean, if you're against the death penalty as such, and feel that executing people, including murderers, is wrong, isn't it problematic to participate in a campaign that always boils down to "Don't execute this guy because he's innocent/reformed?"
(Buttermilk Channel is ten kinds of fucking delicious by the way.)
PETA's hypocritical and contradictory stance on animal rights has been extensively chronicled elsewhere. I think their secret mission statement is, "Take stance guaranteed to generate most publicity."
Not defending PETA here, because they're insane, but I think the idea in both cases is to pick the campaign that will bring the most support, particularly from people with more moderate views on the particular issue. While PETA's obviously against more than just the killing of cute and fluffy animals, they understand (I presume) that killing rabbits is more likely to offend the average person than killing other more commonly eaten and less anthropomorphized animals. Similarly, even if you're against the death penalty categorically, choosing a case that shows a flawed verdict will gain you the support of people who are not against it in theory but would understand a need for it's abolishment in practice.
More likely explanation: Kids at your school -- not Ingrid Newkirk personally -- decided to pick that fight for whatever reason.
Also -- anti-death-penalty activists *do* do that; you just don't hear about them. The guiltiest motherfuckers on earth have people with candles and heavy hearts standing outside the jail on the evening of their executions. (Campaigns to spare people are generally built around *legal* reasons to do so -- so you're pretty much going to hear about innocence or reasons why a governor would want to grant clemency.)
TroutSavant & oudemia: I swear, I fully understand the tactical reasons why PETA & (some) death penalty activists take this tack; it just offends my sense of ethical consistency, I guess, and on a practical level I wonder if if people are really going to change their minds on your larger concerns if you tailor your message in this way.
It most bugs me on death penalty issues, honestly, because I am an absolutist on the subject, and would be of the sort to hold lit candles outside death houses if I weren't a lazy shut-in. Mixed messages of the "Don't execute Mumia because the death penalty is unjust, and also because he is innocent!" sort -- which accompany more or less every high-profile campaign you encounter about the death penalty -- just really drive me up the wall, because they get people to think that, well, if we just managed to eradicate racism from police work and get iron-clad DNA evidence for everything, having the government put people to death would be perfectly fine.
Concerning the death penalty part: in my view the inherent fallibility of the justice system means that whether you take the practical or absolutist view doesn't matter. The finality of the death penalty will always make it unjust, whether it's inherently wrong or not. As to whether people who oppose the death penalty on practical grounds "get people to think" that killing a guilty person is an acceptable punishment, I think that's unlikely. People like you who are opposed in principle are not going to change their minds based on this argument; it's the people who already think the death penalty is justifiable in principle who are likely to we swayed by it's unjust application in practice.
But I think we've gone off topic. Back to killing adorable bunnies! Carrot brandies all around!
Comity!
Comedy!
Well at least they didn't throw it in the briar patch.
Rabbit Killing Seminar by Roberta's in Bushwick.
That is near my apartment, and I have a rabbit. I am very uncomfortable with this.
(but seriously, rabbit is DELICIOUS).
Brave of you to take on new pets (and ones that MANY critters find delicious) after what happened to the turtles--that is one of the strangest pet stories ever.
For one particularly ambitious dinner party, I made a braised rabbit in mustard sauce. I went to Ottomanelli's to get a nice 'plump bunny' as the delightful man behind the counter called it. He asked me if I wanted it quartered (yes) then asked if I wanted the head, too. I told him yes thinking I could make stock out of bunny head...
I get home, open the bag and right on top, looking at me with its wee-beady eyes was the fluffy bunny soon to be made into dinner. I screamed, put the head in a bag and threw it in the trash chute.
The dinner, btw, was delicious.
My life is a tragicomic picaresque.
I will have AMAZING memoirs.
I don't know if I could do slaughter a rabbit - and I'm of the be very aware of what you're eating brigade. Seriously though, I've had enough of the people who like to pretend that food (meat in particular) comes from some sort of magical place.
Then again, every rabbit I have ever met (with the exception of one wild bunny that let me feed it clover when I was three) has been an evil scratching machine. They're really soft and cute, but my forearms are twinging just thinking about it.
If a super-intelligent alien, as far above you as you are above a rabbit, came down from space today and thought YOU were tasty, what would you say? Would it matter if the alien guaranteed you that you wouldn't feel any pain?
Well, assumming I could speak the alien's language, I'd probably say GJKLAFJDLADIGIOFDSFDAJK.
I don't think I'd really have much of a say in things if that was the situation, now would I?
"Waiter, my rabbit had Bugs."
more touching/hilarious in that article, I thought, was the opening bit where a bunch of NYers (from all boroughs, apparently, even Boston) had paid $100 to learn how to kill a rabbit -
"The idea was to place the rabbit on its belly on straw-covered asphalt, press a broomstick across the back of its neck and swiftly yank up the rear legs. Done right, it's a quiet and quick end. But it takes a little skill and a lot of fortitude, which some of the novices lacked."
now that is animal cruelty!
(btw, they have a great rabbit paella at Boqueria)
I suppose "get a rabbit and figure it out" is probably traumatic enough to justify the $100 price tag for rabbit-killin' classes.
(Socarrat, down in Chelsea, also makes a great rabbit paella with pork rib and snails.)
you know what, I meant Soccarat and lazily scanned yelp for 5 seconds for paella in the teens...
or however you spell it. sigh
Ha, awesome, 'cause that stuff is really really good.
Wow, is the Google banner taking a side in this or what?
When I was 15, I watched the girl with whom I was in unrequited love slaughter a bunny. She was trying her best to leverage an opportunity to show me how tough & worldly she was, but she kind of bungled it. There was blood everywhere. I did not find that in any way arousing, so it was ultimately a good thing, I guess?