Posted on 12/01/2006 2:33:53 PM PST by shrinkermd
When a food safety inspector walked into a market in Queens, he noticed the store had an interesting special posted on its front window: 12 beefy armadillos. In Brooklyn, inspectors found 15 pounds of iguana meat at a West Indian market and 200 pounds of cow lungs for sale at another market. At a West African grocery in Manhattan, the store was selling smoked rodent meat from a refrigerated display case. An inspector quickly seized a couple pounds of it.
All of it was headed for the dinner table. All of it was also illegal.
Authorities say the discoveries are part of a larger trend in which markets across New York are buying meat and other foods from unregulated sources and selling them to an immigrant population accustomed to more exotic fare.
State regulators have responded by stepping up enforcement, confiscating 65 percent more food through September than they did in all of 2005.
The seizures also cast a spotlight on the eating habits of this ethnically diverse city, where everything from turtles and fish paste to frogs and duck feet make their way onto people's plates.
"At one time or another, we've probably seen about everything," said Joseph Corby, director of the state's Division of Food Safety and Inspection.
In an attempt to stamp out the activity, Corby's agency has ramped up efforts, working with the Food and Drug Administration, to prevent this illicit food from reaching store shelves.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I sure hope that's poison she's pouring in for those little rodents. They need some cats over there.
"After 30 seconds of jawing the tough "beef," and not recognizing the bones after a lifetime of eating beef, he tells me I'm eating horse spine. "
If you ever had beef in Italy, more than likely you were eating horse and didn't even know it.
Bayou natives in Louisiana export thousands of pounds of Nutria meat to France every year. For those not familiar with them, Nutria are large aquatic rat-like creatures.
Makes possum belly and pigs feet sound like normal fare.
< joke that would get me banned >* Never mind. < /joke that would get me banned >
Nothing. But it did freak me out a little, as I am conditioned to eat Brooklyn food, of which encompasses many foods, but not rabbits - geez.
Need some dinner ideas?
Once again, 'minorities hardest hit,' right? lol
There is a reason why Spam is so popular in the Pacific Isles, you know.
Tastes like Long Pork.
"What's wrong with eating rabbits?"
It has only one stomach and does not have cloven hooves, for starters.
I'm with you. Unfortunately, some think any law at all is an intrusion of rights and freedoms.
I first heard it in 1962.
Sounds like food from your kitchen.
Seems like one more tool to use in controlling vermin. Every large port city has a rat problem. If there are people around who like to eat rat then let them go to it. Ditto with armadilloes (I understand they can be pests what with all their burrowing). Or raccoons. Stray dogs. Feral cats. Cockroaches (people eat roast grasshoppers - whay not roaches?). This would also allow pest control companies a new revenue source. Instead of poisoning the critters they round them up live and sell them to specialty food stores.
I had totally forgotten that song. Got to teach the kids!
I had horse in Switzerland. I was tough(er), but not that bad.
On the one hand, in an ideal world, I wouldn't think we'd need the government regulating what kinds of meat you can buy, and who has to prepare them. There have been a few ridiculous stories lately, along the lines of soup kitchens not being allowed to accept donated food unless it had been prepared by a "regulated" facility - thus preventing a church, for example, from cooking up a Thanksgiving dinner and serving it at a homeless shelter.
But the potential for serious disease is real, and it's a good bet that many of these poor immigrants don't have health insurance. So if they do get some strange disease from uncooked whatzit meat, they'll be in the ICU, getting treated on the taxpayer's dollar. Given that situation, and the risk of contaminating safe food supplies that most people prefer, some kind of regulation may make sense here.
Pavlov kicked in, because 3 rats came out from nowhere and kind of sat up and begged....the tenants kept 'em fed.
Are armadillos or iguanas endangered? Otherwise, why can't they sell them as food?
Gee, we can track down "illegal" meat just not "illegal" aliens. What a mess.
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