Rat meat: it's what's for dinner

Big Chief

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/07/27/rat-meat-it-what-for-dinner/?intcmp=features


"We all know starving artists will eat just about anything, but did you know that for some that includes rodent?

Artist Laura Ginn displayed her latest piece of art in Manhattan's Lower East Side Wednesday: a feast featuring one of New York City's most abundant creatures--the rat.

According to the New York Observer, the five course meal Chef Yuri Hart cooked up was nothing like Roadkill Stew. It included a goat cheese crostini with a small piece of rat meat and a shot glass of gazpacho, two circles of rat and pork terrine over a deconstructed salad. Also featured was "Rat Two Ways"--braised rat and a roasted half rat over a sweet corn salad -- a rat-free lemon sorbet garnished with an edible flower, and finally, French toast topped with a slice of crispy rat jerky (head, claws, and all).

The piece, entitled “Tomorrow We Will Feast Again on What We Catch,” explores the idea of self-sustainability and the multitude of processes which we go through to get our food. It also required guests to pony up $100 and sign a liability waiver just in case the rat did not sit too well with anyone.

But there was no need to worry about the rats' cleanliness. They come from a lab facility in California. Ginn told the New York Observer that the rats arrived in bulk, whole, unskinned and frozen:

"You should have seen my freezer," Ginn said. "I gave over my entire house for this."

View Laura Ginn's Kickstarter page.

For the occasion, Ginn wore a self-made, one-shoulder cocktail dress made of 200 rat pelts to the event. “I’m going to be on the cover of Vogue: the post-apocalypse issue,” she told the New York Observer.

Now, why am I not surprised. "





Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/07/27/rat-meat-it-what-for-dinner/?intcmp=features#ixzz21qjY0brd

JerryBobCo

Who knows.

There may come a day when we're glad to dine on rat. It beats starving.

Bigslug

Once you get past the initial squeamishness, there's a fair amount of sense in it.

Domesticated cattle are naturally grass eating and typically grain-fed

Chickens - typically grain fed domestically. Free-rangers might get the occasional bug.

Rats are natural omnivores, and can live quite well domestically on what amounts to chicken feed. Considering what resources it takes to raise a beef cow to maturity, there might be something to rats as a red meat source. The main problem I see is one of processing and yield - with a cow, you've got to sort out the skeleton within the hundreds of pounds of meat. With a rat, you've still got a skeleton, but only have a few ounces of meaty bits.

BigDanS

The answer is rabbit...

D

breamfisher

Pigeon = feral squab?

Jayhawker

Pigeons(particularly the young ones - squab) are quite tasty...and you will often find them on the menu at toney restaurants.... Why do you think the Passenger Pigeon became extinct?

tennmike

Squirrels are just rats with a fuzzy tail and a better PR team.

Buford

Why not?

Bigslug

breamfisher wrote: »

Pigeon = feral squab?

Ernie: "Say Bert? How about I stay here and watch Bernice while you go down to Hooper's and pick up some merlot and salad to go with dinner?"

Bert: "That sounds good Ernie! I'll be right back."

Bernice: "COOO!" (translates as "HOLY ----!"

Ruger MKII: "Pfft! . . .ta-tink"

Ernie: "CHEHEHEHEHE!"

steffen19k

Bigslug wrote: »

Ernie: "Say Bert? How about I stay here and watch Bernice while you go down to Hooper's and pick up some merlot and salad to go with dinner?"

Bert: "That sounds good Ernie! I'll be right back."

Bernice: "COOO!" (translates as "HOLY ----!"

Ruger MKII: "Pfft! . . .ta-tink"

Ernie: "CHEHEHEHEHE!"

:that::spittingcoffee::rotflmao:

farm boy

Where I work there are hundreds of big fat grain fed pigeons. I am damn tempted to practice my sling shot with .36 lead round balls.

Teach

The street vendors with the meat and veggie shishkebabs cooked over a charcoal hibachi pot at Korat AFB, Thailand had two prices- - - -the 2-Baht (10 cent) price was for monkey meat. The guys charging 1 Baht were serving rat meat!
Jerry

tjsvet50

Reminds me of my time in Korea. Just out side Osan AB, was the restaurant district. You could get nearly anything to eat there, from hot dogs to peasant.(Not a misspelling, BTW) I and a bunch of friends, freshly loaded with Won and some Japanese Sake, went down to the "diners", and ordered what we thought were beef tips. After a real tasty meal, somebody asked what kind of meat it was, and the waiter winked and said "woof".
He laughed, and then everyone, me included, barfed all over his nice clean floor. The idea of munching on Spot or Rover, still doesn't set well, but if you're starving, rack of Doberman might just do the trick.

bruchi

There is a "trend" now "freegans" regular well to do folks picking up food at supermarket, bakeries and so on trash bins, seems they throw away a lot of "good" food.

outdoormaniac94

Rat is a pretty common food here in Mexico with the poorer people from what ive been told. Rabbit and i think snake is big too according to some of the local guys i work with. I havent tried it, but i have wondered if i was actually eating pork or beef at the taco stand???:uhm::uhm:

Big Chief

outdoormaniac94 wrote: »

Rat is a pretty common food here in Mexico with the poorer people from what ive been told. Rabbit and i think snake is big too according to some of the local guys i work with. I havent tried it, but i have wondered if i was actually eating pork or beef at the taco stand???:uhm::uhm:

I think we all have been eating some "Mystery Meat" at times and just didn't know it! :yikes::rotflmao:

bullsi1911

Bigslug wrote: »

with a cow, you've got to sort out the skeleton within the hundreds of pounds of meat. With a rat, you've still got a skeleton, but only have a few ounces of meaty bits.

So, the solution would be free ranging capybara in the cities? Clean up all the trash, and provide food.

Or, there are the R.U.S., but I don't believe they exist.

KSU Firefighter

Now, if we only had a wheelbarrow, then that would be something!

Bigslug

We could always eat the albino.