By: Andrew Zimmern
EDITOR'S NOTE: It's so easy to go home after work and just microwave some chicken nuggets for dinner. But is it cool? Maybe so, but it would be cooler to completely buck tradition and go with something crazier, more exotic, and even more socially responsible! To wit, we asked Earth's greatest gastronomical globetrotter, Andrew Zimmern, to tell us which animals he thinks Americans should give a try. He gave us 13. Enjoy.
We are at a crisis point in America.
Too many children and adults go hungry every day. Too many Americans are getting sick on our over-commercialized food system. Eating well is a class issue. Obesity and diabetes are nearing epidemic proportions in terms of growth. One of many simple and important fixes is to diversify our diet.
Going vegetarian for a few meals a week and eating from a broader range of animal proteins would help balance a whole host of recent inequities. Access to food for all would improve, hunger insecurity would be eliminated, health benefits from food would be more abundant, economic development would take place, ecological improvements and animal rights would dramatically shift as reliance on factory animal production would fade... we can keep extrapolating here, but you get the point.
Here's a list of foods that I believe Americans would fall in love with if they just approached them with an open mind, and were able to sample them prepared by those that truly know how:
Credit: Flickr/Garrett Ziegler
Donkey
An animal with many breeds, several of which are excellent for eating. In Italy, China, and many other countries, the meat is very popular. These animals quickly come to harvest age and are easy to raise. Even the skin is beautiful to eat.
Horse
The best-tasting red meat on Earth, and also one of the healthiest kinds. Its fresh milk is insanely sweet, as if it was sugared. It ferments well and creates incredibly superb cheese, yogurt, and soured milk. Even the organs of this amazing animal taste better than its porcine and bovine cousins.
Credit: Flickr/Teseum
Bees/ants/crickets/giraffe beetles
I could keep listing them for hours. I love bugs. And as the first person to popularize their eating in America, I take special pride in seeing their appreciation soar... but sadly, what's not growing is their popularity as a center-of-the-plate protein. Indeed, there have been dozens of times when I've eaten bugs and sworn to myself never to try that species again. More importantly, those moments are dwarfed by the sheer tidal wave of joyful experiences I've had eating so many of the others.
Grubs/larvae
Head to Mexico City and taste the myriad ways the chefs there cook up ant eggs, maguey grubs, nopales worms... then call me and tell me I'm wrong about their legitimate worthiness as basic comestibles.
Credit: Flickr/stlbites.com
Rodents
They taste of what they eat, and you need to forget about all the rats you've seen in old Willard movies or late at night in NYC subway stations. From 20lb wild agouti, capybara, and a dozen others that eat wild fruits and nuts to cane- and rice-field rats, these animals are healthy, nutritious, and delicious. If you were to eat them in their countries of origin, you would be amazed at how superbly diverse their flavors are... and don't forget the guinea pig, the squirrel, the rabbit...
Rabbit
Speaking of rabbits, they are available, being raised for food right now in America, and underutilized by most. Clean and lean, this is one of the best meats you can be eating today. They are fast to raise, and stand up to any cooking preparation.
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