Well, there’s no pleasant way of phrasing this, so I’ll just ask it…Has anyone here ever eaten Dog meat (Presumably in Asia), and if so, what does it taste like?
Thanks for your patience,
Ranchoth
I have not. However, P.J. O’Rourke, in one of his books (maybe Holidays in Hell) said that he’d eaten dog, and described it as quite delicious. I don’t recall him giving a comparison, though, and “delicious” is obviously a subjective term. I believe he said he ate it as part of a stew.
Again, I’ve not eaten it… but my friend is Chinese, and his Uncle and cousin took my friend and another person (anglo) to Hong Kong for a two week trip.
As a “joke” they ordered the white guy some dog, but ordered it in Chinese, so he had no idea. When he finished one plate, they told him. He then ordered another, because he thought it tasted so good.
Having said that, it’s possibly the one thing I could not bring myself to eat.
I had it once, here in Korea. Didn’t like it much, but I also don’t like mutton, which seems similar to me. Both strike me as a little stringy and rubbery. The dog I had was in a stew, mostly, which was so full of red pepper that the taste was masked. Some of the meat was on a plate alone, and it tasted like, well, like you’d imagine a boiled dog would taste.
I had dog once in Korea. My Mother-in-law made it for me, and we had a small dinner party where it was the main course. Afterwards, my husband informed me that it’s not a good idea to make dog at home unless you really know what you’re doing. Apparently, the meat has a really awful smell that is hard to disguise. Restaurants specializing in the dish have top-secret recipes that cover up the stench. My mother-in-law obviously was not in on the secret, as the meat smell was sickening. The taste and texture was similar to overdone, stringy, slightly rancid beef.
I was surprised to find out that dog meat is a luxury and quite expensive in Korea. Oh well - whatever reason you need to eat as little of it as possible. Also, it’s considered not so much a food to be savored, but a health food. I think it’s got a little more protein than, say, beef or pork.
Tastes like chicken! 
No, it taste like human. 
The only dog I’ve ever eaten was dog liver, at an Indonesian wedding. I was a child, and my father didn’t tell me what it was first - the bride had given it to me as a special treat, and it would have been insulting not to eat it (or to spit it out screaming, as I would have probably done).
It tasted like liver (and, to my credit, I didn’t spit it out screaming).
More than likely I have at any number of barbecue stands in Olongapo City in the Philippines. Pfff. And they said it was monkey.
I was over there for a couple of years as an english teacher/missionary. We had a couple of ladies take us to an upscale restaurant that specialized in barbecued/grilled meats and was reputed for its fine dog meat. We went in and the ladies ordered for us - Their special dog soup and a platter of grilled dog meat mixed with onions, leeks, and other vegetables. The meat was predominant. The soup was spicy with a somewhat thicker broth. The dog meat itself was especially tender and almost a bit fatty, but not too much. It was very soft, and had the texture of beef. the flavor would be very hard to describe. Very dark. And delicious! And on a side note, the dogs they use for the meat are somewhat large, and look kind of like a slightly slimmer Chow with much longer legs and exhibiting the same thick coat and mane. I would recommend that anyone who goes over to Korea give it a try!
One more thing to add…
Dog may be man’s best friend, but he’s also his tastiest main course!
Is it true that the dog must be beaten to death? A friend who lived in Korea for two years taught me that it is considered “manly” food that gives one virility (a play on the health food angle), and that the belief is that this is enhanced by the adrenaline released at the traumatic death.
I’ve heard stories that the dogs are hung upside down and beaten, which releases adrenaline into the blood and muscles, yielding a more pleasing meat. I’ve also heard they’re torched, but its only hearsay.
Would it taste similar to bear meat, perhaps? Because I know that bear is mighty tasty. I’ve only had it once (a friend of my grampap managed to shoot one while hunting deer, and shared a lot of the meat), and it was certainly quite good. The only part of the flavor I can really describe is that it seemed to be fattier than most beef or venison, but even other than that, it tasted rather different from anything else I’ve had.
I ate dog on a boat China (Hong Kong => Hainan Haikou overnight cruise ship).
It was pungent and gamey, and not very pleasant. If you’ve had hare or rabbit, that’s the closest thing to dog that I have tasted before. It was in a stew/thick dark gravy, and had been cooked for a long time. It wasn’t tough. It was served with plain steamed rice. I wouldn’t eat it again.
lukaspriest may be partially right - in the markets of Guangzhou there are indeed dogs and cats hanging alive by their back legs. I also saw a guy in Hong Kong playing soccer with a live duck tied in a net, but that’s another story…
Hmm, interesting. See, I could in no way compare dog to rabbit I’ve eaten. Flavor-wise, it truly compares to no other every-day meat like pork, beef, or chicken.
Just so you know, it’s quite normal to torch an animal to burn the fur off. They do it at all the pig kills I’ve been to… after the animal is dead, of course.
Maybe mine was off, or the chef was having a bad day!
Hahaha…or having a good one perhaps?
What you are talking about are J’indo dogs, which are prized in Korea. I don’t think those are commonly eaten, it would be like eating pot-pellied pigs. The dogs that are eaten are called “sh*t dogs”, supposedly because these type of dogs will eat excrement if left to their own devices. They are usually some kind of nonspecific mixture of breeds, probably the type of dog you’d see sniffing around in a garbage can.
I must say though, I have heard stories of people kidnapping family dogs in order to eat them.