We’ve all heard the stereotypes about certain cultures eating certain animals that most of us find particularly gruesome. Perhaps these animals are pets in our lives, ‘man’s best friend’, but should we deny their tastiness and cultural significance? The mainstream North American diet is as boring as chalk – or at least I think so. And so a few years ago, I decided I would eat anything. Living in Toronto, this statement is rather safe to make.
Two months ago, I ate horse. It was delicious. I dined upon this stallion of an animal at the Black Hoof – a cafe specializing in charcuterie, non-mainstream meats, and offal. It tasted quite good, sweeter than beef or pork, and apparently much leaner too. However, it did not arrive in steak form, but rather made into sausages, and chopped up raw with hot sauce. If I was not told it was horse, I probably would have thought, ‘wow what delicious beef’.
I’ll admit, being acculturated to mainstream North American food, I did find eating horse meat a little strange, though really, no stranger than eating rabbit. Horse meat is actually not as stigmatized in many parts of Europe as you would have think. Though a taboo to eat in English-speaking countries, it is not so in most parts of France and Italy. And let’s be honest, British food is not often revered for being flavourful. While France and Italy are honoured for their impeccable culinary skills, I wonder if monkey meat (brain) would ever be appreciated as a sophisticated delicacy in North America – maybe if the French and Italians started eating it too.
In Canada, horse meat is most readily available in Quebec, and can supposedly be purchased from high-end butchers in Toronto and Vancouver. And so what one may consider as grotesque, others may consider a gastronomical delight, a food that the sophisticated tongue can only appreciate, but I simply think it is delicious, and doesn’t taste like chicken. But no disrespect to the chicken: an animal died so we could eat, and even though factory-farmed chicken tastes like cardboard mixed with white paste, we must appreciate its life and death just the same.
I will be returning to the Black Hoof in Toronto next week with a friend, and hopefully she will appreciate this awesome flavour and not think of images of Black Beauty and ‘My Little Pony’. In the next few weeks, I will be tracking down some horse meat from a butcher, and hopefully getting my hands on a copy of the out-of-print Carlson’s Horsemeat Cook Book. Check back for my attempt at COOKING horse meat.
Which animals would you eat? Which ones would you never eat?
I was going to start my first article with a formal introduction, but frankly, I don’t really know where to begin! I love food, plain and simple, and I like learning about what I eat. Whenever I go travel, I make sure I do my research on the things I need to eat to really get to know a country. For example, I made sure I ate at an asado in Argentina, Peking duck in Beijing, and Roti in Malaysia. And each dish is but one in several thousands that you would have to sample to really appreciate what the country has to offer. There’s simply TOO MUCH to eat. So I thought I’d start small, start local, and try to appreciate the things that are closer to home. This is a start of my documentation of Canadian food in a series I’d like to call “Eh Canadian Flavour”.
