LL-L "Traditions" 2005.08.31 (08) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 31.AUG.2005 (08) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2005.08.31 (07) [E]


Thanks to our Luc, Sid, David and Ron for their responses.

My first reaction to Luc's assertion of the relative popularity of horse 
meat in Brabant is to ask whether that popularity could be be due to French 
influence. I must be candid and admit complete ignorance of the role of 
horse meat in French cuisine here, but I know there are no taboos against 
using horse meat in the foods of northern France.

Sid's assertion that horses are required for transport is a fair one, but 
few cultures are unwilling to eat beasts of burden. Indeed, as Ron points 
out, in Central Asian Turkic and Mongolian culture, the horse supplies 
personal transport, haulage, meat, milk, and its hair is used for decorative 
purposes. Other cultures that eat horses presumably also use them as 
transport. There must be further reasons as to why Lowlandic peoples do not, 
on the whole, eat horse meat.

David suggests that horse meat may be tougher. I am sure that it would be, 
but that could be softened by making a stew of the meat. Mutton is tough, 
remember, but can be made to be quite soft by appropriate cooking. Kangaroo 
is an intensely muscled animal that produces superb steaks (kangaroo is in 
fact my favourite meat). Nevertheless, horse meat may have dropped down the 
list of acceptable foods if it required intensive time and effort before it 
could be eaten.

For the record, I have never eaten horse meat - but I would not say no if it 
were offered.

I suppose this leads me to a broader question: what foods (apart from the 
obvious, such as cat, dog, rat) are taboo in one Lowlandic culture but 
acceptable in another? It was not that long ago that pigeon was considered 
perfectly acceptable mainstream food in many parts of England (urban 
pigeons, unhygienic as they are, never so). Jellied eels are eaten with 
relish in parts of Essex and London but hardly anywhere else. Pike was 
considered a (somewhat unusual) foodstuff where I grew up.

Go raibh maith agaibh,

Criostóir.

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From: Hugo Zweep <Zweep at bigpond.com>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2005.08.31 (07) [E]

Dear Ron
I hope I am not getting to be out of hand - two notes so soon after
re-joining and both about food.

On horse meat - I also recall in the immediate post war years a horse
butcher in Winschoten (Oldambt/Oost Groningen). My mother (again) spoke of
it with disdain and I somehow was made to feel that you bought meat there
because it was cheap and/or more easily obtainable than beef. But then she
also thought margarine was a poor substitute for butter.

Regards
Hugo Zweep

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Traditions

Eh, Críostóir, Hugo, Leeglanners!

Mien Macker Krischaan (Críostóir) schreef:

> It was not that long ago that pigeon was considered perfectly acceptable
> mainstream food in many parts of England (urban pigeons, unhygienic as
> they are, never so).

Same thing in Northern Germany.  My dad (a colorful character, as you must 
have gathered by now -- and is it any surprise?) was an avid pidgeon 
breeder, racer and eater -- and whatever he did, sunny-boy was supposed to 
do, too.  (Yeah, sure! Don't hold your breath!)  Good pidgeons where trained 
and bred, bad ones dead and fed.  I haven't had a pidgeon since.  No!  I 
take that back.  Once.  When I lived in Nanjing, China, they opened a 
"Western" restaurant in town -- a big deal at the time (just after the 
Cultural Revolution).  I invited my Chinese roommate and his girlfriend for 
a meal on the opening night, and neither of them had ever had a Western meal 
before.  The _plat du jour_ was pidgeon with some ... stuff ...  I didn't 
want it, but it sounded romantic to my guests, and I wanted to be the 
perfect host.  Besides, almost everyone in the joint had it.  The birds were 
truly like rubber.  I'm not kidding.  You weren't able to manage even with 
cutlery (which I was the only customer able to use).  Everyone else was 
stabbing at the tough, intact carcasses with chopsticks, and some folks 
balanced the entire things on chopsticks and attempted the aerio-dental 
attack strategy, while intermittently slurping soup and whipping up their 
chocolate puddings with chopsticks, since all courses were served at the 
same time, _à la chinoise_.  A couple of months later, my roommate confided 
in me, tactfully, that he thought that Western food wasn't all that it was 
cracked up to be.

> Jellied eels are eaten with relish in parts of Essex and
> London but hardly anywhere else. Pike was considered a (somewhat
> unusual) foodstuff where I grew up.

In Hamburg and other parts of Northern Germany people eat a lot of 
cold-smoked fish, and smoked eel is a specialty.  I used to like smoked eel 
(G _Räucheraal_, LS _Spickaal_, _Smuttaal_, _Smooraal_), but it's really 
drippy oily and made me sick one day ... and that was the end of that.  It 
didn't help that in the meantime I had learned about the sleazy lifestyle of 
those guys.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron

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