Panamah
10-17-2006, 10:48 AM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/6055506.stm
Would you have accepted the seal eyeball?
Over the last few days, I have done some extraordinary things.
I have eaten raw ringed seal, raw caribou meat and raw Beluga whale skin.
And to cap it all, I have dismembered a walrus.
No, I am not on a mission to become the most hated man in the Western world - I am making a TV series called Cooking in the Danger Zone, using food to understand people around the world who are going through crises or rapid change.
...
We pulled up to some pack ice and the seal was butchered by Theo and his nephews.
Theo expertly skinned it and everyone else hacked the best bits off for a raw snack.
John cut off an eyeball and ate it whole.
He offered one to me, but I declined, opting instead for a chunk of flesh.
It was strange to eat still-warm seal, and I cannot say that I relished the idea, but it tasted like fine, well-hung beef fillet, and it would have been a far greater tragedy to let any of the animal go to waste.
That was my first taste of "country food", as the Inuit call it.
When I asked what Theo thought of people who protest against seal hunting, he dismissed them with disgust.
This is not just hunting. This is a way of life that has defined an ancient people.
Wipe out the hunting, and you wipe out 4,500 years of Inuit culture.
Would you have accepted the seal eyeball?
Over the last few days, I have done some extraordinary things.
I have eaten raw ringed seal, raw caribou meat and raw Beluga whale skin.
And to cap it all, I have dismembered a walrus.
No, I am not on a mission to become the most hated man in the Western world - I am making a TV series called Cooking in the Danger Zone, using food to understand people around the world who are going through crises or rapid change.
...
We pulled up to some pack ice and the seal was butchered by Theo and his nephews.
Theo expertly skinned it and everyone else hacked the best bits off for a raw snack.
John cut off an eyeball and ate it whole.
He offered one to me, but I declined, opting instead for a chunk of flesh.
It was strange to eat still-warm seal, and I cannot say that I relished the idea, but it tasted like fine, well-hung beef fillet, and it would have been a far greater tragedy to let any of the animal go to waste.
That was my first taste of "country food", as the Inuit call it.
When I asked what Theo thought of people who protest against seal hunting, he dismissed them with disgust.
This is not just hunting. This is a way of life that has defined an ancient people.
Wipe out the hunting, and you wipe out 4,500 years of Inuit culture.