International Foods

Having recently returned from a rather delightful tropical island vacation where I did a lot of snorkelling, I have to confess to having spent a lot of time floating above brilliantly coloured fish and wondering how they tasted.

I find I have the same reaction towards many creatures great and small when watching wildlife documentaries or visiting zoos.



Do I look tasty? It's really just idle speculation on the whole, however, even I never thought things could reach the stage where the Beijing zoo has a restaurant that serves up portions of various animals seen at the establishment.

It's taking the whole "select your own crayfish" scenario to another level entirely. Does one walk about the zoo with a menu, eyeing up energetic antelope, or simply sit at a table and point? Monkey not engaging in enough hilarious monkey business? Into the pot with it!

Apparently not. The zoo claims that the meat - including peacock, hippopotamus and kangaroo - all comes from exotic animal farms.

In many ways, then, it's little different from scoffing a hot-dog or a burger at a your local petting zoo.

There are game restaurants in Africa, where money can be made by selling sustainably harvested game meat, attained by legal culls of populations so as to prevent overpopulation. If that was the case, and it was certified, would you dine on it?

I'm sure that given the chance to sample some of the more exotic dishes in the world I would with a gusto. Even relatively civilised Australian eathouses have served me crocodile, kangaroo and emu.

It could even be a great fundraiser for hard-up zoos with overpopulation problems: a yearly fundraising feast of unwanted stock?

So, is it wrong to look at an elephant and wonder what a rump steak would taste like, or to witness the gangly grace of a giraffe, and wonder how good a casserole of neck cops would be? Should we not look at a wonderfully plumaged bird and ask what the drumsticks would be like? Gnu stew anyone? Or are the toes of a hippopotamus or a deer penis going too far? Tortoise terrine? Bat hot-wings?

Isn't it really simply culinary temerity that limits us to beef or lamb?

And finally on Friday: Give a man a fish and he will have a meal. Teach a man to fish and he will feed a village. But, give a village an elephant and they will be over the moon, as these photos clearly show.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/generalistimo/3748786/Hungry-for-hippo