Chinese restaurants using cats...UL?

[Contestant #3]

Is it really true that it is not that uncommon for a chinese restaurant to increase profits by serving cat in place of chicken?...or is this just urban legend?

I hope that this is just an UL...please tell me it is!

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Contestant #3

[pricciar]

C'mon!!!! This is just silly, you know they don't use cat meat. Especially, nowadays with all of the stringent Health codes.

I think a more interesting question would be where this particular legend came from. I guess possibly just the misunderstanding of other cultures that often occurs.

pat

[Mazey]

Of course it's silly. All the BETTER Chinese restaurants use dogmeat!

[BoBettie]

Check out the "Peking Moon" wav on this website..you'll crack up. http://www.wfu.edu/~kellys/goofy.html

PS- Health laws, nothin'...we had a Chinese restaurant by us shut down for thawing chicken OUTSIDE on the sidewalk next to the garbage dumpster. EWWWWWW!!!!!

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An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.

[Pooch]

I don't think they use kitties for chicken dishes---but beware of the pork.

[Akatsukami]

Back quite a few years ago, I was on a team of P/As at an investment firm, where one of the financial analysts was a Chinese woman. She owned three cats (and had their pictures prominently displayed in her cubicle), and we, uncouth fellows that we were, used to tease her about being a rancher. One day, she told us, "Oh, no, I would never eat cat; the meat's too sour." This managed to put an end to our comments, as we discused in hushed whispers just how she knew that the meat was too sour.


Basically, however, she was right, although I would describe cat meat as "rank" rather "sour" (don't even bother asking how I know). A diner who consumed Fluffy Gung Bao and didn't notice that there was something wrong with the meat could probably also eat McRat and pick the fur out of his teeth with only mild puzzlement as to how it got there.

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"Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away."

[pricciar]

Ok, here is a link that tells a bit about how this legend got started. They traced a story back to the 1850s.

The site also has a link to a song similar to the one on the other site "Cat's in the Ladle"

Good old snopes site, it has the info again.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/chinese.htm

pat

[SkeptiJess]

Back quite a few years ago, I was on a team of P/As at an investment firm, where one of the financial analysts was a Chinese woman. She owned three cats (and had their pictures prominently displayed in her cubicle), and we, uncouth fellows that we were, used to tease her about being a rancher. One day, she told us, "Oh, no, I would never eat cat; the meat's too sour."
When I lived in Sicily in the early '80s, we Americans were startled by the meat markets. Everything hung in the windows. The birds (geese, ducks, chicken and various game birds) were hung by the neck and, although there was rarely beef available, there were always several goats and rabbits. The funny thing about the goats and rabbits was that they were only skinned from the neck down -- the heads were left intact. Once I'd been there a while I asked my landlady what was up with the goats and rabbits and I was told that skinned rabbits resemble skinned cats and skinned goats resemble skinned dogs -- the heads were left on so that the consumers could be sure they were getting what they paid for. Sicilian butchers also used to prop the skinned pigs in the window -- "dressed" in little hats and ruffled dresses. I still don't know what was up with THAT!

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Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity

[tomndebb]

On the other hand, the Chinese restaurant in my mom's town got shut down--by the Department of Natural Resources! Someone noticed that the number of mallards congregating in the pool beneath the local dam (just outside the restaurant) had been shrinking. The DNR discovered the recent immigrant restaurant owner was unfamiliar with the concept of "hunting licenses" or "hunting season." (Of course, my mom is 83 and not all of her stories turn out to have occurred in the manner in whch she described them.)

(Shirley Ujest--and other inhabitants of North Orion, this was the restaurant across from the Orion dam.)

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Tom~

[Lissa]

I dunno about cats, but a Chineese resturant in Columbus, Ohio was shut down a few years back for serving dog meat.

[pricciar]

Lissa, do you have a cite for that?
I don't mean to be confrontational, but, that Snopes site mentions Columbus, Ohio specifically as a place were these rumors have occurred.
Here is the quote from snopes.

Ancient slur or not, wherever this rumor goes it affects how the locals feel about the Chinese in
their midst, and it often impacts a restaurant's fragile bottom line. As an example (this rumor has
turned up in so many cities, it would be impossible to list them all), in 1995 the closing of two
Chinese restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, awakened the sleeping rumor yet again. Calls were fielded,
both by the local paper and the board of health, about whispers that these closings were the result
of dead cats' being discovered in each eatery's meat locker. Never mind that just the previous day
the local paper had run a story about the closure (for business reasons) of all 51 restaurants in this
particular chain -- the cat meat rumor would not be denied.


Obviously, this story is about cat meat, but since it happened a few years ago in Columbus, I thought maybe that dog story might just be a metamorphisis of this rumor.

pat

[Big Iron]

It is not totally a UL -- now and then a place gets shut down or hassled for serving dog and/or cat meat.

[pricciar]

I guess that is true, perhaps it has happened once. But, it is still an Urban Legend, it doesn't happen nearly as often as the stories claim.
I still have yet to see one documented incidence of it happening. But, I have had people tell me the story about various establishments, without any documenting proof. Newspaper story or something.

pat

[Egads Ron]

Strange this question should come up. An acquaintance of mine just returned from China, and I ran into him last Friday. He'd been over there for several years.

At any rate, the subject of cuisine came up, and he said they do indeed consume dogs and cats in China. In fact, he'd eaten dog when he first arrived, and he didn't know what it was. When he found out,he advised his cook to try to prepare something a little more "American".

So it may be a UL in the States, but apparently it's not in China.

+Ron
"Run Spot run"

[the first supraliminal]

Actually, a few restaurants I know do serve dogmeat. But only explicitly (or perhaps illicitly) to customers who ask for it. After all, it is a delicacy in many Asian countries.

I'm not sure, but I believe that dogmeat is actually illegal in the U.S.

Howabout venison, or snakemeat even, can restaurants legally serve these?



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¾È ³ç, ÁÖ µ¿ ÀÏ

[gene]

Another urban legend put to rest. Actually, it would be ridiculous to even think of serving cat meat-the work involved for the amount of meat would not be worth it.
However, I understand it is quite easy to get dog meat in S. Korea-the locals swear its good for a variety of ailments. In fact, when they had the Olympics in Seoul, the local police shut down the dog meat restaurants-they did'nt want to offend western tourists.
Seriously, I understand that the meat from carnivores (bears, cats, dogs, etc.) is generally not too tasty-it contains high concentrations of some rather nasty compunds. Stick to the herbivores!

[CFQWEST]

Can't believe people are perpetuating this mythi with statements like "it does happen from time to time" without providing any verification.

The bottom line is: there is no reason to believe that any Chinese (or any other ethnic) restaurant has ever been shut down for serving cat/dog meat--although several have gone out of business because of malicious rumors of this nature.

Even if a Chinese immigrant came to this country and enjoyed eating cat/dog, why would they jeopadize their business by serving it to Americans who they know would be horrified?

Look at it logically. Is there a shortage of chicken in this country? I'd bet it would cost a restaurant more to obtain and process cats than it would to use chicken.

As for venison and snakemeat, they are available in American restarants, as I have eaten both.

[Big Iron]

[[Can't believe people are perpetuating this mythi with statements like "it does happen from time to time" without providing any verification.
The bottom line is: there is no reason to believe that any Chinese (or any other ethnic) restaurant has ever been shut down for serving cat/dog meat--although several have gone out of business because of malicious rumors of this nature.]] CFQWEST


Sorry, CF, but I'm fairly sure that in fact such things have happened from time to time, and been reported in the papers. Not a rampant phenomenon, of course, but in light of the cultural differences of many immigrants it's hardly a shocker, either. But perhaps none of those asian immigrants who thought nothing of eating dog, and who came here knowing little of our way (much less language) ever cooked dog in their restaurants.

[pricciar]

Like I said, I have heard the story often, but I have never ever seen a newspaper report on it. The snopes site seems to say the same thing, no places were it actually happened are mentioned there (they do mention that china and korea consider dog and cat a delicacy)
So, until I read an article where it actually happened, I will remain skeptical.

pat

[MrKnowItAll]

First, I agree with a couple of the previous posts that points out the difficulty in serving cat. In fact, thats the arguement I usually use to defuse these stories when I hear them. Restaurants almost always get their meat from suppliers, already butchered, skinned, and cut up. If a restaurant were to serve cat, they would have to do all these things themselves, in addition to catching the large number of cats required in the first place.

Second, newspapers are not immune to printing ULs. It's happened before, it will happen again. Remember, no souce of information is totally trustworthy. Be willing to question anything that doesn't make sense.

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Carpe hoc!

[Big Iron]

Having poked around a bit more, I am willing to return to the more skeptical side regarding this story. I was fairly certain I'd seen a report on a restaurant/dog-preparation flap somewhat recently, but I can't locate it and it may well have been BS. I still have no doubt that immigrants from Korea and SE Asia have eaten dog in the US, and I would be surprised if at least one or two restaurants hadn't done that, but at bottom, given the number of fake reports, it certainly qualifies as predominantly an urban legend.

Here's the Snopes article on the subject:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/chinese.htm

[MrKnowItAll]

Just a quick question for anybody who knows. (I'm not interested in "I heard"s or "I think"s.)

Is serving dog or cat actually illegal?

I remember reading a newspaper article about a man who bought a dog at the pound, took it home, shot it, then served it at a barbeque. As I recall he did this as a joke (although apparently he and several of his guests did eat some). He was being charged with cruelty to animals, but there were arguments about whether he had in fact broken any laws. According to the article, there were no specific laws forbidding eating dogmeat and some people were arguing that it was no crueler to buy, kill, and eat a dog than it was to do the same to a pig or chicken.

[Doug Bowe]

Tonight Leno got about 1 minute of material on a bill in the South Korean legislature that would make the consumption of dog meat in that country legal.

[Gaudere]

Howabout venison, or snakemeat even, can restaurants legally serve these?

They serve venison here all the time; I've had it. Mmmm, broiled Bambi. I'm pretty sure snakemeat is legal; probably even horse. I think I'll try to find out.

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"Eppur, si muove!" - Galileo Galilei

[pricciar]

Big Iron,
Glad you found the Skeptical side. Not to be rude, but I already posted that site and quoted from the article. Geez, I feel almost invisible. Oh, well.

Thinking of the horse meat comment, last year on the California initiative ballot I remember there being one that made the sale of horse to be used in food as illegal. It passed, so now people can't sell horses to be used in food. I don't know about glue, though. (Ha, I am sure they don't do that anymore, do they?)

pat

Wasn't there a bit of a dust-up in S. Calif. a few years back, as recent Asian immigrants were eating dogs and/or cats and upsetting their neighbors? They weren't serving them in restuarants, but I recall seeing on the news that there was a lot of anti-Asian prompted both by fear of new immigrants and their "forign" eating habits. Imagine going to India and ordering a steak!

[Doctor Jackson]

I dunno, I always figured if you ate it, enjoyed it, and it's doesn't kill you, then who cares what it was?

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The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. -- E. Grebenik

[Big Iron]

[[Big Iron,
Glad you found the Skeptical side. Not to be rude, but I already posted that site and quoted from the article. Geez, I feel almost invisible. Oh, well.]] pricciar


I'm sorry ... I'll just look sad and say "d'oh."

[Lissa]

pricciar,

I remember my mother reading the story to us from the Columbus Dispatch one morning in horrified amusement.

As I recall, the resturant's trash was full of dog skins. Don't remember exactly why they were going through the trash, though.

So, I went to search the Dispatch archives, only to find that they've changed their site since my last visit, and now only archive articles from the last 60 days.

Thus, I can't prove it, but I'm stickin' to my story.

[furt]

okay, I'm going to weigh in here, since I live in Taiwan (which is NOT part of China, but that's another issue; and BTW anybody interested in a thread on thaT?).

First off, many people in asia DO eat a lot of things Americans wouldn't consider--I've had snake, chicken embryos, hog penises, etc. I've had dog and liked it (a cross between beef and turkey, IMO). There is a saying about Cantonese (people of South China) that they'll eat anytiing with legs but the table. While most young people are partial to western eating habits, for older folks, stray dogs are fair game, and they find our pickiness a little silly.

I doubt people would try to pass off cats as chickens on a regular basis, for reasons of meat cost, taste, etc. BUT if you're talking about "it happened one time in this one restaurant," I gotta say I find it extremely plausible.



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"It all started with marbles in school..."

[Sonic]

I've never heard anything about cats being used, but I did see a special on the Discovery channel about the Chinese cooking with rats. (Sounds tempting....) I think it was a restraunt in China that was famous for their tasty rodent dishes. They acctually showed them skinning the rats, boiling them, and the satisfied costomers who were completely aware of what they were eating. **Sonic picks up another fried "chicken" wing and keeps on eating....**

[Sonic]

I also heard of thing they're doing there, and it's sopposedly going to be the next sushi type craze. It sounds really cruel if ya ask me. First of all, the fish is alive the entire time you're eating it. They have to knock the fish unconcious, and skin it so it has just a small membrame covering it's internal organs, leaving the head and tail fully entact though. Then, they cook the strips of meat they skinned off and lay it out in front of the fish. Finally to serve it, they prop it's head and tail up with a toothpick to give it that "i'm ready for my close up" look. The poor thing has to watch itself being eaten the whole time.

[gene]

The most bizarre form of protein has to be the Japanese liking for FUGU (the japanese blowfish). This stuff costs like crazy (over $200.00 for a plate in Tokyo), and is reputed to taste like "chicken". Why anyone would endanger his life to eat this stuff is beyond me-but they do.
My brother works for a Japanese company, and I met his (japanese) manager once in New York. I had just seen an item in the NY Times, where the NYC Board of Health had allowed a restaurant in manhatten to serve fugu. He commented that his cousin in japan loves the stuff-he knows when to stop eating when his tongue becomes paralyzed.
Seriously-to all of you who want to try this exotic form of protein: if the chef who cleans the fish isn't careful, he may puncture the liver-this allows the toxin to seep into the tissues-rersulting in a swift death (via paralysis of the diaphragm) for the diners.
Don't say I didn't warn ya!

[Akatsukami]

gene opines:The most bizarre form of protein has to be the Japanese liking for FUGU (the japanese blowfish). This stuff costs like crazy (over $200.00 for a plate in Tokyo), and is reputed to taste like "chicken". Why anyone would endanger his life to eat this stuff is beyond me-but they do.
It's because the toxin in the organs is psychoactive. Too little cleaning will kill the diner; too much, and said diner might as well have a piece of scrod on his plate. The secret, as with so many other things in life, is to hit just the correct, happy medium.


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"Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away."