SPECIAL TREATSSeveral years ago the Wall Street “Journal” did one of their fine “middle column” pieces dealing with the proper use of what we call “road kill” nutrition.
In notes made at the time, I find I was not impressed with the recipes they provided for making larger types of rats edible for humans. In so many cases the rats are readily available in the very area where are scarce. It makes good sense to make use of available sources of nutrition. Many cases are cited wherein “road kill” items have been prepared as food for human consumption. It remain a theme for comic songs, however, rather than for cookbook copy.
The main barrier to wider use of non-conventional food sources is in the mind and we should try to overcome such restrictions in either economic or nutritional reasoning.
Review your own personal experiences in food source as a guide. After all, you will find you place your trust in someone afar whom you have never even seen, much less known, to tell you where,when and under what conditions your foods were raised. His continued career depends solely upon your acceptance of everything he says. And, ”he” is often plural as well.
What “uncommon” foods have you consumed?
There are long lists of “generic” foods beloved by some families and utterly repulsive to others. Have you had your “chitterlings?” Your “brotschnizer?” Your “rivels?”
College kids make news headlines and have their picture taken eating gold fish, which are one form of carp. Aborigines in Aussie Land eat worms and bugs We consume who-knows-what in cold cuts, hot dogs, and other such mixtures while Koreans are enjoying their – I’ve forgotten at the super-smelly stuff -”kim- she”think,...something like that, and just a few mountainous miles westward from where I am sitting, West Virginians will soon be eating fresh ramps from their almost-heavenly hills.
Let’s see now: I have eaten Chocolate Covered Grasshoppers from a tightly sealed shoe polish can (formerly,I think)- a flat-like metal thing. They tasted nutty or cocoa-nutty. I ate rattle snake and crackers a biological staff get-together at Mountain Lake, Giles County, Virginia many years ago. I’ve enjoyed deer, of course, bear steaks and bear burger,buffalo in various styles. How does your off-base list read?
A.L M. April 11,2006 [c401wds]
