Carrot, anyone?
I'm late, I'm late
for a very important date
for Easter this year. In fact, I haven’t done that in ages. I stopped telling people that rabbit is my favorite meat when I got tired of getting the kind of look that is usually reserved to pedophiles. I actually eat a lot less meat than the average American, even though I am not vegetarian, but somehow I often manage to gross out the locals when the topic of food comes up. Yesterday, at a wonderful get-together with some friendly neighbors, someone mentioned fish, so we started comparing notes on what and where to buy. Suddenly I was aware of two pairs of eyes staring in my direction. Uh-oh, what have I said this time? It turns out that I mentioned baking branzino and someone asked what kind of fish it is and in the back and forth of conversation they figured that I bake it whole. It never even crossed my mind that anyone would find that gross. Besides, it’s a lot more flavorful when you bake it whole — no innards or anything like that, just with its head and tail on. It seems that a lot of people find that disgusting or disturbing or both. Something to do with the eyes apparently. I wonder if that is why the few places that sell frogs here actually don’t sell frogs, but only frog legs. Never mind.
Politically correct bunny
May
eh, whatever, some north americans have no sense of where food comes from. Talk to anyone outside of NA and they really don’t care if food have eyes on them!
Joanne
I’ll stick to chocolate rabbits… or anything chocolate for that matter!
Alyssa
There’s something about eating something with eyes. I like my meat to by philosophically distinct from the animal it came from, like ground beef or chicken breasts. A whole fish or rabbit just reminds me I’m eating an ANIMAL, and that makes me feel like some kind of cave person :/
But that’s my take – I know we got on the topic in my Anthropology of Food class two years ago, but I don’t remember who postulated the idea (I’m a bad college student).
Lorette
I eat rabbit and cook fish whole, too. I think it’s partly our culture where people really don’t “get” where their food comes from. They would probably get very grossed out if they watched their chicken being made “ready” for the supermarket shrink-wrap section. Oh, and I know people who have never cooked a whole chicken, either, they seem to think it only comes in parts.
Annie
Definitely an American thing methinks, this aversion to whole fish … not only does fish cooked whole taste better … what would a Stargazy pie be without the fish eyes?
Ingrid
Another bunny and whole fish eater here. I’m also raising two of them!
karen
Yup, I like my edible bunnies in chocolate and the living bunnies eating my garden. And, edible fish come without eyes, don’t they? I want a koi pond, but that’s another story…
Italian Dish Knits
I loved your post. My mom was from Italy and we ate rabbit all the time – cooked in white wine and onions. Was so good. And whole fish tastes much better than filets. Most Americans just don’t know that.