Chicken??

I am Chinese, well part Chinese the other half of me is a mix of cougar and German mongoose. I state this fact only to cover up the fact that this post may sound racist. Trust me it is. I went to lunch today at a Chinese restaurant. Sometimes I have a problem when I eat at Chinese places. It all has to do with trust. As I sit there eating the sweet and sour chicken I find myself questioning certain things. The chicken is tenderized, breaded, and then fried. Now I understand this changes the consistency, I mean obviously the tenderizing part would explain why it doesn't feel like chicken, but I still find myself wondering. Is this really chicken?

You could seriously bread up anything tenderize it, fry it up and drench it in sauce and I am sure it would feel the same. How do I know exactly what kind of meat I am eating. This is where the racism and trust issues comes into play. I know some cultures eat rats, dogs, shit even bats. I myself have never had any of these meats, therefore I would have no idea what they taste like, and in effect could eat them without realizing it. Cat has to be cheaper than chicken and it is edible in certain places. Although probably not many, and it could be more of an overblown stereotype. But what is to stop them fromjust grabbing some other animal instead of the stated chicken and frying it up. I mean basically anything could be eaten if you wanted to. Horses, pigs, salamanders, whatever it is I am sure it is eaten somewhere. I just hate it when I take a bite and doubt that what I am really eating is what it was labeled as.

But if you really look at it the designations for what is acceptable to eat it is weird in the first place. What makes a certain animal acceptable to consume? Why pigs, which are filthy animals, over say a cat which is probably much cleaner? It has to do with attachment I suppose. The projection of a personality and intelligence upon an animal, makes it less ok to devour. But I heard pigs were smart.

Another things is what parts are ok to eat. I am guilty of discriminating between what parts of an animal I will eat. I was at my girl's house one day and they had some food on the stove. She asked me if I wanted some and I said alright. Of course I asked first, "what is it?" she responded, "Oh, it's just some beef." Cool I thought to myself that is acceptable. So I got a bowl and started mashing on it, like eating a lot, thinking mmmm this is good, I likey. I finish eating a good amount and I look over to see my girl just smiling at me. Kind of that weird mischevious smile, the kind that says you don't know what you just ate. This fact was confirmed by her saying, "Do you know what that was?" Ohhh shiiiiit, what the fuck did I just eat I thought. "I thought you said it was beef," I said. "Well it is, it's a part of the cow." "What, what is is?" I anxiously inquired. "It's cow tongue," she said still smiling that evil smile. Awwww man, what the fuck, that is gross, I thought. Sure I was a little pissed but I liked it. I am not saying that I will purposefully eat it again, but I don't know why the stigma of eating cow tongue would make it less appetizing. Ok actually I do, it's a god damn cow tongue. But I have to admit that it tasted good and was very tender. It reminded me of that scene in "Funny Farm" when Chevy Chase sets the record for most Rocky Mountain Oysters eaten. "Wait a minute the rocky mountains don't have oysters." Hahaha, yeah he just ate a ton of cow balls. But once again he liked it. So does thinking something is gross, play that much of an effect on eating it? I suppose it does, but you kind of realize that is bullshit after you unknowingly eat it and enjoy it. Then the only thing stopping you from eating it is being stubborn and having this unnatural aversion to it. It has been experienced and you enjoyed it, now why would something mental hold you back from partaking in it at another time? You know it's good despite what you are thinking in your head, but it's that mental block of, fuck dude I am not down with eating the tounge out of animals that stops you.

Anyways I was just thinking about all of this while at lunch today. Seriously I don't think that was chicken. The only thing stopping me from enjoying the meal was that mental nagging, of what the fuck are you eating. Which as I stated before is kind of dumb. Maybe it is more of the wondering that bothers me rather than the actual consumption. If they had told me it was rat meat then maybe I could enjoy it more? Im going to go with no, maybe it is better to wonder. But this leads back to the you enjoyed rat meat argument so I see no end in sight for this dilemma. Perhaps I should just stop going to shady ass Chinese places.

http://www.slate.com/id/2060840/ (Good article about whether or not dogs should be eaten. I like this piece as it argues how its just cultural differences. I should have talked about this more in the beginning but, my thoughts were more about me getting grossed out by being fed stuff I wasn't sure about. Please read this and open your mind. We have no right to tell another country not to eat something. Hindus don't stop us from eating cows, why should we regulate what other countries eat. It's closeminded and ignorant. It's an american-centric view. I am all for personal freedom, whether it be what you eat, what you wear, who you date, whatever, just let people have their own views. I choose not to eat dog, but that's just me, please don't eat my dog, but if you want to have a snack, who am I to stop you.)
http://www.messybeast.com/eat-cats.htm (eating cats)
http://www.animalfreedom.org/english/column/dogmeattrade.html (Eating dogs again, but against it)
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=281 (I guess you shouldn't eat bats)