[at-l] Exotic meats (was Oh My!)

[bluetrail at aol.com (bluetrail@aol.com)]

 Back in the 70's, I vacationed five different years at a small dude ranch on the Greys River about 70 miles southwest of Jackson Hole, WY.  In the fall and spring, the ranch was a hunting lodge.  A lot of the hunters only wanted the trophy heads (lots of Boone & Crockett records were taken out of the ranch), and they left the meat to the owners.  Most of the deer and elk were ground up and served to the unknowing summer guests in spaghetti sauce, chilli, tacos, etc.  We also ate antelope steaks one evening (more like mutton rather than lamb).  One year Buddy & Nancy bought two piglets in the spring and fed them all the clean kitchen scraps; the butcher came that summer while we were at the ranch, and that was strange--eating the livers of Porky and Petunia, whom we'd been admiring the day before.  However, growing up I was in 4-H for 6 years and knew lots of kids who eventually ate their livestock projects; it was a given in farm families.  The ranch owners sent me moose jerky one Christmas; it just tasted like jerky.  
 
Another friend's husband owned a gun store and had an annual game dinner where I ate, wild hog, dove, quail.  This past fall I ate rattlesnake at Cafe Diablo in Torrey, Utah (fabulous restaurant kind of between Capitol Reef NP and Bryce NP).  Here in Florida, it's possible to get gator in a lot of restaurants.  I grew up eating Haussenfefer (sp?), a German dish of spicy and sour stewed rabbit--whenever my grandmother could get rabbit.  I've also eaten turtle, tripe, and barbequed goat.    
 
Guess I'll try most anything once and now have probably grossed out every vegetarian on the list.
 
Joan
bluetrail@aol.com