GameBanshee Forums

Re: Re: Don't make my mouth water, Chanak...

Originally posted by Enchantress
OMG - do people really eat that? Why? Do they not have pets, too in the Philippines?

Check out some histories of British daily life during WWII. You'll find that cats, commonly referred to as "roofrats," were regularly eaten to supplement the extreme rationing of meat. I've heard that cats actually had to be brought into the country after WWII, since their population had been so severely depleted, but I've no confirmation of this.

The loathing to eat dog and catmeat really is just cultural, isn't it? It's estimated that dogs became companions of humans as much as 10,000 years ago in Europe, while cats achieved that once they proved so successful in ridding Egypt's grain stock of their mice plagues roughly 4,000 years ago. Both animals were grafted into the human tree of affection in Central and South America after European conquerors appeared. (Ironically, a very accepted modern cultural theory is that the downfall of the various native American cultures was really achieved by the diseases that European domesticated animals carried. The Europeans had developed immunities through long exposure, and the native Americans completed lacked this.) Many Asian cultures never developed symbiotic relationships with cats or dogs. Hence: more food.

If this sounds unpersonal, it isn't. I know I couldn't eat catmeat unless it was represented to me as something else. Something almost cannibalistic about it--after all, our cats are part of our family.

Come to think of it, I love Guinness but I'm actually not interested in Guinness icecream myself. I prefer Guinness in liquid form with white bits on the top.

Apparently, the Newcastle Brown Ale Icecream was served to commissioners/organizers (?) during the Newcastle's failed attempt to be the European Culture Capital (or something rather) City of 2008. It obviously failed to attaract votes, nor considered to be cultural. I suspect it even contributed losing some votes. No surprise there....

@Mah: I assumed that balut would have originally been eaten by those dudes in loincloths and Seiko watches. Learn me a thing or two.

The consumption of the domestic dog is actually quite common in large parts of the Orient. In Korea, it's very common. I recall Fido being on the menu in Angeles City, Luzon. The same goes for China as well. Here in our part of the globe, dogs are eaten in Mexico, amongst other areas that I might not be aware of. In fact, certain Mexican-run Taco stands along a particular highway here in the greater Tyler area were shut down by the Health Department earlier this year for substituting dog meat for beef. This was done without the knowledge of their patrons, of course. I know some fellows who lived in the area (I also worked with them)...people started noticing the stray dog population thinning out drastically over the span of a few months. Apparently, the propreitor of one of the "Taquerias" was rounding the dogs up, butchering them, and selling the meat at a discount to his fellow Taco stand owners.

No discussion about alternative food would be complete without mentioning the very large portion of earth's human population that looks to insects as a source of sustenance. Has anyone here besides myself, Scayde, and Mah ever eaten an insect (or other arthropod) before?

Originally posted by Chanak
No discussion about alternative food would be complete without mentioning the very large portion of earth's human population that looks to insects as a source of sustenance. Has anyone here besides myself, Scayde, and Mah ever eaten an insect (or other arthropod) before?

Grunty had a thread a couple of years back that discussed eating insects and such. I think he went to a North African nation where a girl friend of his lived, and eating insects was commonplace. In fact, as I recall, he ate 'em live. It's fortunate for us that the insects didn't come to a similar decision, first.

Originally posted by fable
Grunty had a thread a couple of years back that discussed eating insects and such. I think he went to a North African nation where a girl friend of his lived, and eating insects was commonplace. In fact, as I recall, he ate 'em live. It's fortunate for us that the insects didn't come to a similar decision, first.

Fable - this is completely untrue information about Grunty. What are you talking about?

And as for the British eating cats in WWII - you simply must back up claims like this with respectable evidence. This is utter rubbish!

I see the alzheimer's is kicking in again, can someone help fable back to his room? One dodering old codger, any claims to ownership?

That's right fable, there were 2 gruntboys ruining your afternoon nap, now take your pills, all of them.

The only way I'd go to Africa would be with an air-mobile division.

@ Fable - gosh, you just love causing trouble, don't you...

Did you have a lonely childhood?

I have heard from family members that it was common to eat horsemeat during the war, but not cat meat If my family had ever been tempted they never said, and it is not that my family are particularly cat lovers (so to speak)

Yes, horsemeat is eaten in France too, I believe. I doesn't sound too appetising but horses are vegetarian, like cows, chickens, pigs and sheep and other common sources of meat.

During the war food was rationed but people didn't starve. I think it's highly unlikely (and probably completely untrue) that cat meat was regularly eaten as Fable claimed.

Apparently horsemeat is a lot tougher than beef, but then they are not bred for the plate

@ Fable i believe you're thinking of Foul and his live hissing ****roach

by ysh
Apparently horsemeat is a lot tougher than beef, but then they are not bred for the plate

Well, this certainly bears investigation. If it's true, I've got a thing or two to say to my parents.

Originally posted by Enchantress
Fable - this is completely untrue information about Grunty. What are you talking about?

My apologies to you and the dimpled youth. I'd thought it was Grunt, but it may have been Foul, or someone else just as obstreperous. My memory isn't what it was even as recently as 125 years ago, you know. I should snack on those DRAM chips, but I keep forgetting...

@ Fable - gosh, you just love causing trouble, don't you...


Why? Did I cause Grunty to spit pablum all over the furniture, again?

Did you have a lonely childhood?

Well, yes. I mean, there weren't many of us, just a small handful, and we tended to live far apart, on the various continents we'd claimed. Occasionally we'd ride a stegasaurus out to see a friend, but they were unreliable beasts, and all looked like Ozzy Osbourne. However, things have been getting better ever since. At this rate, I'll die a very happy slumming god, indeed. Thanks for asking.

Originally posted by T'lainya
@ Fable i believe you're thinking of Foul and his live hissing ****roach

Yes! Thanks, T, for clearing that up. It was Foul, indeed. Too bad the thread is no longer online.

Originally posted by Scayde
@Enchatress:....LOL.You must understand, fable doesn't make mistakes. He is excercising his prerogative as a Slumming Babylonian God to check and make sure you are paying attention.

Pay him due homage and hope your blasphemy will be forgiven

Not only that, but for a limited time you also get an Iraqi oilfield, a signed picture of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher doing the lambada, and a handy assortment of ginzu knives. Call now!

Originally posted by fable
Not only that, but for a limited time you also get an Iraqi oilfield, a signed picture of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher doing the lambada, and a handy assortment of ginzu knives. Call now!

Two questions...

1. Is it Christmas???

and

2. What's the number ?

Originally posted by fable
My apologies to you and the dimpled youth. I'd thought it was Grunt, but it may have been Foul, or someone else just as obstreperous. My memory isn't what it was even as recently as 125 years ago, you know. I should snack on those DRAM chips, but I keep forgetting...

Yup, that was Foul. That's the thread where we discovered Foul and Saigo are related.

Originally posted by Minerva
Yup, that was Foul. That's the thread where we discovered Foul and Saigo are related.

Thanks heavens YOUR memory is still functions effectively, Minerva!

@ Fable: I'm still waiting for your qualified evidence regarding the widespread eating of cats by the British during the war.

Find some REAL historical evidence about this, or otherwise retract your statements , please.

Originally posted by Enchantress
@ Fable: I'm still waiting for your qualified evidence regarding the widespread eating of cats by the British during the war. Find some REAL historical evidence about this, or otherwise retract your statements , please.

I will never retract my remarks while you Redcoats wait over the horizon, greedily eyeing our northern coastal properties and southern weather! So check some histories of life in the UK during WWII, and knock yourself out. Until you do, though, here's an interesting excerpt from a very good article on the consumption of cats by Sarah Hartwell:

Cat has also been eaten in Britain. During wartime rationing, cats found their way into "rabbit" stews/pies and hence earned themselves the nickname "roof-rabbit". With so many city strays and pets abandoned by bombed out families, cats were a substitute for rabbit. A former colleague whose father was in the butchery trade during that time told me that butchers sometimes kept cats as ratters; the cat later ended up being sold as "rabbit". The rationale was simple - a surplus of homeless cats living off of vermin, plus the fact that the supply of wild rabbit from the countryside had been suspended. Today, pet cats in the UK are apparently stolen to satisfy the continental fur trade; the skinned carcasses have sometimes offered to butchers as "wild rabbit".

I wasn't aware that you Brits were at the heart of a movement to steal cats and sell them for fur--to Continentals like the French, no less! You clearly have a lot to answer for.