In case you didn't know, I am a proud life member of PETA - People who Eat Tasty Animals. So when I read this article earlier, it made my pallet salivate like Pavlov's dog at the sound of a ringing bell...
Caffe Boa offering an-all-reindeer menu over Christmas
by Howard Seftel - Dec. 7, 2010 10:45 AM
Republic restaurant critic
Last Easter, chef Payton Curry and the crew at cheeky Caffe Boa in Tempe decided to get in the holiday spirit by putting together a special all-rabbit dinner. Public reaction ranged from anger to bemusement. The Easter Bunny went into hiding. Needless to say, the publicity was priceless.
Now, channeling the spirit of Christmas, and firm in the belief that there's no such thing as bad publicity, the Caffe Boa team is fashioning a multicourse tasting menu featuring - you guessed it - reindeer.
Well, not exactly Euro-Asian reindeer, but North American caribou. (The two are basically the same - the distinction is based on geography.)
Don't worry about Rudolph and the rest of the gang not being able to play any more reindeer games: Curry's caribou comes from Colorado and Idaho, not the North Pole.
The menu begins with caribou tartare gilded with pickled quail egg. That's followed by caribou tongue bruschetta with pickled watermelon radish and horseradish cream. Then there's caribou sausage with red lentils and quince mustard. Up next are two pasta courses: pappardelle with caribou Bolognese and caribou-filled tortellini in a parmesan broth. The caribou parade ends with bollito misto, a meat and vegetable stew...*snip*
It's not that I hate them. They really are some of God's most beautiful creatures and they sure do taste good after cooking for a few hours over a hickory flame. Ten years ago, when I was working down in Westchester County, I had the pleasure of eating at a restaurant named "La Braseria" (at least I think that's what it was called). I can't find them on the internet today, assuming they have since gone out of business, but back then, they must have had a chain franchise in and around NYC. I've eaten at one in White Plains, one outside of Valhalla, and one in the Nanuet Mall. It was a Brazilian BBQ house that features an all-you-can-eat menu of animals, uncommon to typical American cuisine. Servers walked from table to table with long skewers held vertically and resting on a block of wood. Each server had healthy portions of several different BBQ'd meats on his skewer, and upon arriving at your table, would identify each the meats. If you liked something he had, he would remove it from the skewer and place it on your dish. If you didn't want what he had, you simply waited for the next server to arrive at your table with with a different selection of meats. One night, I ate the flesh of 17 different beasts. Among them were ostrich, camel, crocodile, kangaroo, tortoise, and REINDEER. Yes folks, I ate BBQ reindeer and it was damned good, but stay away from the kangaroo, it was tough as leather!
More importantly here folks, the reason for the Christmas season is not any more about Santa and reindeer than Easter is about a large furry rabbit hiding colored, hard-boiled eggs and candy around your house on a particular Sunday in early Spring. These holidays are supposed to be about the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even if a bunch of pagans or atheists try to make these holidays about anything other than what they really are, that doesn't take away from the fact that God gave us dominion over other animals for use as food and labor. You should also bear in mind that Santa's reindeer, while probably just as tasty, serve a higher purpose due to their ability to fly, and for that reason alone, have likely been able to save themselves from becoming the main course on Santa's dinner table.
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