I’m currently reading two non-school related books, one of which is Eating Animals by Johnathan Safran Foer. I’m still in the very beginning stages of the book but I like what I’ve read so far. It has made me recap my history of eating meat and the relationship I have with my food.

One’s our friend, the other is food??

Growing up, there were particular foods that were symbolic and staples of certain holidays and with Easter just having passed, I couldn’t help but to long for being back home where Good Friday was spent at church or at home eating fried fish and hot cross buns. That was only thing you were allowed to eat. It doesn’t seem to be the case here in America, but to each his own cultural practices.

But back to eating animals. This book has made me wonder why it is so taboo to eat dog and yet we would butcher a goat like nobody’s business and curry that bad boy (this I have actually witnessed). What makes a dog so different from a goat, or even fish? The writer told a story shared to him by his grandmother who spent her youth running from the Germans not sure when she would see her next meal. One day she was offered meat — pork at that and she refused to eat it. She was Jewish.

The food we choose to eat and not eat sometimes is affected by our religious practices, defining what is unclean and what it suitable to eat. By JudeoChristian standards, I shouldn’t be eating conch and crawfish along with my buddies bacon and ham….Yea…..Not going to happen. I’m sorry. I love seafood. Call them roaches of the sea, I will still eat them; stir-fry, baked, saladized (Yes, I made that word up), steamed, stewed…I will eat them.

I remember going in the boat occasionally with my dad to go fishing. If you have never done this, you are missing out on how it feels to catch your own meal. It feels so primitive thinking about it now, but it was so fun. I never thought twice about the death of these fish as they went from nibbling on the bait at the end of my line, to being on my plate and me nibbling on their crunchy tails, seasoned with salt, pepper and lots of lime!

The more I read and research about the things people are doing to our food so much so that even insects die from eating it, the more I want to forgo meat products altogether. But, for now, I’m enjoying the meats I do eat and will continue to try out others. I will not be eating any curried dog though! I’ll also be back and share some more thoughts on eating animals and about the book.