Major Variola (ret) wrote:

At 11:38 AM 4/2/04 -0500, Trei, Peter wrote:

...

I haven't eaten domestic cat, but I have eaten lion. Suprisingly, it was a light tender meat, resembling veal more than anything else. Tasted good.

Just out of curiosity, how did you verify that it was in fact that species?

No direct proof. This was at a restaurant called "The New Deal" in SoHo, NYC, I think on Prince Street. Once a year they would carry a game menu for a couple weeks, and I went there with a bunch of friends. Among other things, we ordered rattlesnake, alligator, buffalo, venison, zebra, bear, and lion. I liked most of it - the alligator not so much, nor the zebra (partly because we got an unusual cut - the 'prarie oysters' :-). Were they faking it? The snake, buffalo, deer, and bear I had had before, and they seemed the real McCoy. We tried to order elephant, but they were out. If they were intent on fraud, would they have told us that? Out of curiosity, I asked about sources, and it turns out that, except for the rattlesnake and bear it all came from game ranches, mostly down in Texas. I know they also ranch lion down there. I don't know where they got elephant, but the source seemed more sporadic. At the prices they were charging, I'm sure they had no need to fake it. Peter