03 Apr 05 Other foods

Doubled-boiled penis soup, stir-fried frog legs, iguana eggs with rum. Any average diner on reading these entries in a menu will most probably recoil in disgust. However the recent outcry amongst the world population against the widespread dining on dog meat in South Korea in the lead up to the World Cup 2002 strikes me as a little hypocritical.

Protesters who are mainly from the West have decried this little culinary preference as barbaric and cruel. Why is that so? Does cooking canines necessarily equate to cruelty? Perhaps dogs are more often found at the end of a leash in certain countries and for others served on a plate instead.

This basically boils down to a question of familiarity; consider Rocky Mountain oysters, accepted as a delicacy in the American west, it is a concoction of bulls’ and sheep’s’ testicles – a dish that might not be necessarily appreciated by canine connoisseurs in Seoul. How many times have you tried something different like crocodile? Once? More probably never. But is it not time that we put aside our illogical prejudices and savour what is brewing in our neighbour’s cooking pot?

After all, opening up to another culture, like the first taste of an oyster, can be quite an adventure. If you’ve ever had an experience of an odd or bizarre dish in your culinary travels, do share it with our readers in this blog.

By the way, I love Oysters. I’ve just eaten twenty raw oysters with crackers and tabasco this very evening at a local bar, washed down with some beer.