Happy Year of the Dragon, everybody! Today, there are
dragons in every Chinatown and every Chinese storefront.
There are even dragons in every Chinese restaurant, in the
form of xiao long bao ("little dragon buns" or Shanghai
soup dumplings. Actually pork.) or maybe "Dragon Meets
Phoenix" (Actually shrimp and chicken). I think this betrays
a certain fascination with exotica, or at least the
idea of exotica. At times that fascination has
gone so far as to endanger whole species (think of shark fins, and
birds' nests). Be that as it may, such fascination isn't
exclusive to faraway cultures.
When I was in school, I had a good friend who went on to spend
some years working in the bush. From his campsites he'd send
me letters which never failed to highlight his distance from
civilization, particularly the one that included a recipe for
stewed iguana. A part of me has always regretted not testing
that recipe, and a part of me has always been relieved I never had
to. I think a great many of us--adventurous eaters but
practical cooks--feel that ambiguity.
These days, I tend to review cookbooks in an Everyman sort of
way. I keep it inexpensive and fairly accessible, which is
helpful to my readers but also to me. That means I test
chicken a lot and veal not so much. Yes to shellfish, no to
sushi-grade tuna. The most exotic thing I've cooked in the
last few months was the Christmas goose, which hardly counts (well,
yesterday we had "thousand year old" preserved duck eggs, but those
come pre-cooked. And they're actually only 90 days old).
In the EYB database you can find alligator,
pigeon,
grouse,
armadillo
(in the Joy of Cooking,
no less!) There's squirrel,
and there's kangaroo;
there's bear
and possum.
What a magnificently diverse table this represents! at
least for the unrepentant carnivore.
I suppose such wistful thoughts about game are a way of
expanding my imaginary culinary horizons, even knowing that I'm not
heading into the back 40 with a rifle and hauling back a brace of
hares for supper. But surely my EYB friends have more
adventurous larders! What's the latest oddest thing you've
cooked? Did you love it? or was it just for the sake of
the thrill?
