All this talk about "wet markets" and the Covid 19 virus. One theory is that these markets where live and slaughtered animals of all types create a fetid biological soup where zoonotic disease can ferment, mutate and spread to humans. Made me remember a delicious meal I had in 1987.
Really.
In May of 87, I found myself on an international tour of the Far East with the MIT Sloan Fellows program. We visited Japan, Singapore, China and Hong Kong. We were hosted by the CEOs and business leaders of some of the largest, most prominent businesses of each region as well as government leaders. It was a truly incredible, eye opening experience.
We toured the manufacturing facilities, banks and financial institutions, technology companies and trading houses. We visited historic and cultural sites. And we feasted on some of the most amazing cuisine; Kobe beef, yaktori, octopus, sake,; spicy, delicious gastronomic delicacies. But my most memorable dining experience on that trip was not in a corporate board room or an upscale restaurant. It was in an alley.
It was late in the evening on the streets of Hong Kong. I was walking back to our hotel after a night of sake, karaoke and lots of laughter. My friend Takaski Oki loved to sing and enthusiastically performed his favorite American cowboy tune, "Rawhide" on the karaoke stage. In the Japanese language the sound of the letter R does not exist. It is pronounced as L. So Taka belted out his song as "Lolin, Lolin, Lolin, Lawhiidde... to the great delight of his classmates. Good memories.
It had been a long day and I needed some sleep so I had headed out by myself, but halfway back to the hotel I smelled the most delicious aroma and my stomach growled. It was emanating from a dark, unmarked alley, lit only by a string of bare lightbulbs. The alley opened into a kind of courtyard that was bustling with activity.
There were a dozen overturned wooden wire spools as tables and rickety stools. Most of the tables were crowded with Chinese men enjoying their meal. The woman waitress motioned me to an empty table and I mimicked eating food with my hands. She turned away, but soon returned with a steaming bowl of thick meaty stew. It smelled delicious and tasted even better. I quickly inhaled the contents and motioned for another.
It was then that I noticed the outdoor cooking area. Large pots of stew were steaming over gas burners. The cooks were busy adding ingredient to the pots. One cook in a bloodstained wife beater tee-shirt reached up, removed the carcass of a skinned animal from a hook and proceeded to violently chop it into pieces. I looked closer and recognized enough features to determine the animal was feline.
The mamasan returned with my second bowl of cat stew. I stared at the bowl for a minute or two before scarfing it down. When in Rome...
I didn't have any adverse reaction to the food. Would I do it again? Probably not. When you know better, you do better. Still, the memory of that savory stew lingers. Maybe Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat will develop a vegan cat stew...
Funny...but wrong.
Really.
In May of 87, I found myself on an international tour of the Far East with the MIT Sloan Fellows program. We visited Japan, Singapore, China and Hong Kong. We were hosted by the CEOs and business leaders of some of the largest, most prominent businesses of each region as well as government leaders. It was a truly incredible, eye opening experience.
We toured the manufacturing facilities, banks and financial institutions, technology companies and trading houses. We visited historic and cultural sites. And we feasted on some of the most amazing cuisine; Kobe beef, yaktori, octopus, sake,; spicy, delicious gastronomic delicacies. But my most memorable dining experience on that trip was not in a corporate board room or an upscale restaurant. It was in an alley.
It was late in the evening on the streets of Hong Kong. I was walking back to our hotel after a night of sake, karaoke and lots of laughter. My friend Takaski Oki loved to sing and enthusiastically performed his favorite American cowboy tune, "Rawhide" on the karaoke stage. In the Japanese language the sound of the letter R does not exist. It is pronounced as L. So Taka belted out his song as "Lolin, Lolin, Lolin, Lawhiidde... to the great delight of his classmates. Good memories.
It had been a long day and I needed some sleep so I had headed out by myself, but halfway back to the hotel I smelled the most delicious aroma and my stomach growled. It was emanating from a dark, unmarked alley, lit only by a string of bare lightbulbs. The alley opened into a kind of courtyard that was bustling with activity.
There were a dozen overturned wooden wire spools as tables and rickety stools. Most of the tables were crowded with Chinese men enjoying their meal. The woman waitress motioned me to an empty table and I mimicked eating food with my hands. She turned away, but soon returned with a steaming bowl of thick meaty stew. It smelled delicious and tasted even better. I quickly inhaled the contents and motioned for another.
It was then that I noticed the outdoor cooking area. Large pots of stew were steaming over gas burners. The cooks were busy adding ingredient to the pots. One cook in a bloodstained wife beater tee-shirt reached up, removed the carcass of a skinned animal from a hook and proceeded to violently chop it into pieces. I looked closer and recognized enough features to determine the animal was feline.
The mamasan returned with my second bowl of cat stew. I stared at the bowl for a minute or two before scarfing it down. When in Rome...
I didn't have any adverse reaction to the food. Would I do it again? Probably not. When you know better, you do better. Still, the memory of that savory stew lingers. Maybe Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat will develop a vegan cat stew...
Funny...but wrong.
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