I never know what to make of a story that capitalizes on what may be viewed as weird/extreme eating by 'exotic' cultures. We're officially in the Year of the Rat and on Wednesday, February 6, the Wall Street Journal had an article on how there's been a resurgence in rat-based dining in Vietnam.
The title of James Hookway's piece is "For Vietnamese, The Year of the Rat Starts with Lunch: Rodent-Eating Takes Off, In Response to Bird Flu;Cats, Snakes on Menu, Too." That's quite a headline, and if you weren't a careful reader, you may think, "Those bizarre, crazy Vietnamese people. They'll eat anything!"
But read further down, past the first paragraph to get the culinary details and rationale for the resurgence of rat cuisine. Hookway's story is quite informative.
That's quite a difference from the LA Times February 6 piece on new dining trends in Orange County's Little Saigon!
For more to ponder, see:
- Half-hatched duck egg posting
- Year of the Rat posting which contains some comments on rat cuisine
Happy New Year! It was interesting to learn that they were probably eating grain/snail-fed rats. Ratatouille gourmet field rats, ay? It always does make me a bit nervous when articles say there is a huge trend in rat-eating or whatever...
Posted by: Michelle | February 11, 2008 at 01:32 PM
Rat cuisine has been around for a while so don't feel so bad!
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | February 11, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Until I watched the cartoon ( http://file.sh/Ratatouille+torrent.html ), I didn't have the slightest idea of the dish! I will surely cook it!
Posted by: ninora | April 22, 2009 at 01:45 AM
Thanks for the link Ninora. The veggies for ratatouille are coming into season soon...
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | April 22, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Eat a rat ? no thanks...
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