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!
Contestant #3
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
Of course it’s silly. All the BETTER Chinese restaurants use dogmeat!
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!!!
An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
I don’t think they use kitties for chicken dishes—but beware of the pork.
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.
“Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away.”
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
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!
Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity
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.)
Tom~
I dunno about cats, but a Chineese resturant in Columbus, Ohio was shut down a few years back for serving dog meat.
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.
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
It is not totally a UL – now and then a place gets shut down or hassled for serving dog and/or cat meat.
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
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”
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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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!
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.
“Eppur, si muove!” - Galileo Galilei
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.
[[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.