I told her my sister-in-law likes those big shrimps, while I was peeling open the armour of one of them.
" Really?", she said," I thought Dutch people didn't like to peel shrimps."
" She does, but you're right. I think most Europeans don't like to see what they are eating."
Something I was reminded of later, when the roasted chicken appeared on the table, complete with head. I had to think of a visit to a restaurant years ago, when a friend of my father had ordered all sort of things my mother was reluctant to eat: Oysters, crab and pigeons. After much insisting, she had at last taken one of the remaining pieces of the bird, only to find out it was a bit bony. The host gently pointed out that was because she was chewing on its head.
It's a cultural thing of course. Just as Muslims and Jews won't eat pork and Hindus don't eat beef, so Europeans are perhaps a bit reluctant to eat chicken feet, duck skin or fish heads. Yet sometimes it seems this dislike of seeing what animal one is eating is backfiring on the Europeans nowadays.
Just go to the supermarket and have a look at the ingredients of a piece of meat. Luckily the EU has obliged the producers to mention these, for otherwise you might not be eating what you think you're eating.
If you buy ham, the ingredient list tells you it does not just contain a pig, but also all sorts of preservatives, pigments (to give it a pink colour) and aroma compounds (including the notorious monosodium glutamate). Most of them have this E-number, so the customer can sleep well, knowing he isn't being poisoned without permission from the EU, but it still makes me suspicious as to why they have to add this stuff. Usually people don't buy meat for a whole month and I think it doesn't really matter whether a ham is pink or brown, as long as it is fresh.
Thinking back to my recent holiday in Hong Kong I remember the shops lining the busy streets, fish in buckets, crabs in crates and chickens in cages. Of course this might have been one of the reasons as to why the bird flu struck over there, but on the other hand what could be more fresh than a living animal? Does the label on the chickens in the supermarket tell when exactly the animal was slaughtered? It could have been there for weeks, neatly wrapped up in plastic, with all these E-numbers concealing the actual time of death.
But then, I suppose that if I would buy a living chicken myself it would end up as a pet rather than a dish...
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Ethics vs aesthetics
Written by John_O (140 comments posted) 28th January 2008 |
Hi FM
its a 'fact' of modern urban life that most of us have little idea of where our food comes from and a lot of people seem to prefer it that way. The cuts of meat used to be visible to us when local butchers performed the slaughtering as well as butchering of whole carcasses, I'm old enough to remember half a lamb or pig hanging up in a butchers shop. But now food hygiene regulations dictate that the slaughtering can only be done in highly regulated slaughterhouses and they become bigger and more mechanised to cope with the volume. Our food has become as industrialised as our city lives.
I would not advocate a wholesale return to the conditions you encountered in Hong Kong, that is a little too unsanitary, but I would certainly include food production methods in our education curriculum. Thus children would learn that cuddly lambs end up as succulent joints and cows make the milk they pour on their cereal each morning as well as end up in burgers. The more we understand how our food is produced the better we will be able to judge what is 'good' food and what is 'bad'.
A thought provoking piece, thanks for that
John_O |
made me think
Written by mia_ms_kim (1019 comments posted) 28th January 2008 |
My Mum once gave me a bag of fresh squids (dead) to cook. I've eaten them all my life (Korean cuisine), but when I saw their faces and eyes - I almost fainted. I didn't know squids had any. Frankly I'd rather not know, what I am eating once had a face. The incident almost turned me into a vegan.
My boy (5) doesn't know the difference between pig and pork, cow and beef etc. When I tell him, he rebukes me for my foolishness.
You have made me rethink the vegan option...
Mia |
Written by Fledermaus (3301 comments posted) 28th January 2008 |
Thanks John and Mia.
I suppose it's indeed because of hygiene that one doesn't see whole pigs and sheep at the butcher's in (northern) Europe anymore. But I think it's very bad that meat nowadays sometimes seems to be made up of all sort of chemical stuff rather than animals.
I'm not surprised many children are shocked when they find out their meat comes from those cute little (and big) animals. I sometimes have that reaction myself too when I see a lamb or a piglet, yet I think it mainly has to do with how detached we are from nature.
I can very well imagine people becoming vegetarian or vegan because they don't like animals being butchered and I think it's a good thing to do if they manage to stay healthy. Won't do it myself probably, as I like meat to much, but I do think it's a shame if people don't realize what they are actually eating. Especially if it's stuffed with all sorts of artificial tastes and colours. |
Written by Phil (6730 comments posted) 28th January 2008 |
Interesting points raised. I'm a big wuss when it comes to meat. I don't like the feel of it on my hands (particularly chicken) nor the smell. I don't have a problem eating it - I even prefer steak pretty pink.
I guess much of the way our meat (and other food products) is processed is down to the fact we want cheap food, we want it to last and we don't want the inconvenience of having to slaughter it ourselves. I had a friend who refused to eat meat unless he had killed it himself. All very worthy - but not all of can run around the countryside with a Jack Russell and a .22 rifle.
The price we pay for comfortable, modern life?
Phil |
Written by Fledermaus (3301 comments posted) 28th January 2008 |
Thanks Phil.
I think that's indeed part of the problem, for otherwise people would simply buy organic meat (strange expression btw). Yet somehow it also seems many people have rather hypocritical views on meat: They want to eat it, but don't want to know where it comes from.
As written in the piece itself I may myself also be a hypocrite though, as I probably wouldn't kill an animal either... |
HI Fledermaus
Written by jean.day (2283 comments posted) 28th January 2008 |
| I enjoyed reading this, and I agree with you. I don't like the thought of slaughtering animals and wouldn't do it myself - but like the taste of meat too much to be true to my feeings. I didn't mind fishing, and then gutting the dead fish - which is interesting, but I wouldn't eat the rabbit my husband shot in the company of his friends. |
Written by Fledermaus (3301 comments posted) 29th January 2008 |
Thanks Jean.
Strange thing is that we used to have chickens as pets, but meanwhile ate other chickens, while after we had rabbits, we have never eaten a single rabbit. Must have something to do with cuteness. But all the more reason as to why people should be aware of what they are eating. |
Written by fellpony (1616 comments posted) 31st January 2008 |
Good piece Fledermaus - it gets people thinking. I agree with your comment in the review, "people have rather hypocritical views on meat: They want to eat it, but don't want to know where it comes from. " People also seem to choose to be vegetarian or vegan without any idea of how the farmers of areas that will only grow grass - like many western areas of the British Isles and Europe - are going to survive. Another endangered species 
(Are vegans going to live on grass? They'll have to re-make their guts to digest cellulose.) |
meaty options
Written by Bagheera (683 comments posted) 31st January 2008 |
 It still upsets me when ignoramussesses (and assorted "wussies" go all weepy and say "But you wouldn't REALLY eat Bambi/Rudolph/cutie likkel fing ... " if I happen to say I miss having a good old-fashioned elk stroganoff or haunch of venison .....
In certain parts of the world [I'm thinking Sweden, specifically] it's NOT unusual to take your rifle and SHOOT game for dinner, as it can be a 2-day round trip to Tesbury's to buy EXTREMELY expensive pork/chicken/beef, whereas the deer are lining up BEGGING to be culled in the forest....   |
Written by Fledermaus (3301 comments posted) 1st February 2008 |
Hi Sue and Bagheera,
Sue,
Apart from addressing the hypocrisy, I also intended to mention the danger that results from it, namely that many of us are nowadays eating food of inferior quality, because people simply by what the supermarkets offer them.
Bagheera,
Some relatives of mine in Surinam do the same. Parrots seem to be very tasty. Funny thing is that even they make distinctions between 'cute animals' (sloths, owls, turtles) and 'food' (parrots, iguanas)... |
Written by coosh (868 comments posted) 6th February 2008 |
I liked your references to the shrimp "armour" and the chicken head. There is a psychological as well as cultural aspect to all this. It reminded me of an English student in France who happily ate the meat we were served in the canteen every day until she discovered it was horse. At which point she became a vegetarian to avoid any future misunderstandings.
They took us on a "biology field trip" at school to a local abattoir, but subsequently abandoned the idea for future pupils due to a downturn in paid school meals in favour of bringing your own sandwiches. Overall, I've probably reached the same conclusions as you with your "pet" chicken - greater food education and awareness (inside and outside schools) should lead to increasingly demanding consumers and a higher standard of quality.
(Nice reference to being "poisoned with the permission of the EU", who must be delighted with the financial spin-off that the bureaucracy of all this generates. This may be a stupid question, but what happens if we all stop eating pigs and cows - would they just end up roaming wild?) |
Written by Fledermaus (3301 comments posted) 6th February 2008 |
Thanks coosh.
If we stop eating pigs and cows? I think they'll soon become endangered species, just like most other big animals. From a Darwinistic point of view, becoming cattle is one of the best things that could happen to animals... |
To eat or not to eat...
Written by JohnFHamill (34 comments posted) 8th February 2008 |
This reminds me of that tv show where people have to watch the animal go through all the processes, from when it's alive to being cooked and put on their plate. Then they had to eat it. Some people do indeed tend to get a bit sickly whenever they see how the industry works. I used to work in a chicken processing factory and one day I seen how exactly all the chickens are killed. I'll not go into detail but it involves decapitation.
Also from working in meat factories, a lot of preservatives do go into food as well as other chemicals. They're not at all necessary, it's just to maximise profit. It's argued that these preservatives don't affect humans but no real tests have been carried out to prove this. Some preservatives are a very small concentration of poison that kills bacteria but supposedly doesn't affect humans.
I enjoyed reading this, and it made me wonder if I would kill animals for eating if the market for it didn't exist. My answer is that I would, because I like eating meat and I wouldn't want to go against our nature (our teeth are shaped specifically for dealing with meat!)
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Written by Fledermaus (3301 comments posted) 8th February 2008 |
Thanks John.
I think many of us would if we would have to, but the thing is that most of us have become so detached from the process that we hardly think about it anymore. |
What's the point?
Written by TomOBrien (68 comments posted) 13th February 2008 |
Although written fairly well, and fun to read I don't see where you are going with this. Unless it's just for the fun of it.
I've been to Asia on a couple of occassions and found the culture amazing. Chickens in the market place hanging gutted, upside down. Fish heads, the eyes are the delicacy don't you know. They offer the eyes to the guest of honor. It was an astonishing experience!
tom o
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Written by Fledermaus (3301 comments posted) 13th February 2008 |
Hi Tom.
The point was that if people don't bother what they are eating, they may well end up eating different things than they think they're eating. I'm personally not very happy with all those additions they put into meat nowadays. |
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