They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Yes, and then they eat them.

"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is a novel written by Horace McCoy, made into a movie starring Jane Fonda, and has nothing to do with horses.

Here in Belgium and in many countries across Europe and Asia, not only do they eat horses, they eat plenty of other stuff we Americans wouldn't think of dining on.

After the recent and continued E. coli outbreak, we talked about all the things Europeans eat that we Americans simply don't. Like paard. That's Flemish for horse. Paardenvlees is slightly sweet, tender, low in fat and high in protein.

Straight from wikipedia - not first hand knowledge.

In early times, wild horses were hunted as an important source of protein, but after a ban by the Roman Catholic Church (of course) and because horses later became workers and companions, an aversion to eating them developed. This taboo remains in many countries to this day.

Horse meat is available and consumed in Belgium, but it's not in the top 5 horse-meat-consuming countries which are: China, Mexico, Russia, Italy and Kazakhstan. Although it isn't illegal in the States, consumption is restricted.

In Belgium, horse meat can be used to prepare steak tartare (aka filet americain and I have no idea why it is called americain). Steak tartare is on nearly every Belgian restaurant's menu. It's raw beef (or horse) ground up, often mixed with pork (gehackt). It is a very popular dish with the locals.

This is filet americain. Always served raw.

And to increase your chances of not only getting E. coli, serve with a raw egg for potential salmonella as well.

And if that's not enough raw meat for your taste, nearly every Belgian menu also includes carpaccio. This is also raw meat. It's just sliced rather than ground up.

This is paard carpaccio.

Doesn't that look lekker?

I guess it's just a cultural thing that develops over centuries. Like Asians eating a lot of raw fish.

Herring is popular here too. It is also eaten raw and it's simply awful. That comes straight from first hand knowledge.

Voetbal, haring hot dogs, appeltaart, and Saab.

How Dutch.

In Germany (where this whole E. coli thing started) they serve a dish similar to steak tartare called mett. They just leave out the beef and/or horse altogether and use raw, ground pork.

Here's an idea for your next dinner party.

"Mett Egels"

Recipe:

-form raw ground pork into a little hedgehog family

-then stick onions in their back to mimic quills

-then add cauliflower and broccoli to simulate their natural habitat

Serve cold and raw.

Given the exposure to raw meat, I am surprised it was never considered as the source of this most recent E. coli outbreak, but it appears it was the bean sprouts after all.

We were talking to our neighbor about these differences in culture and acceptance of certain foods. She mentioned that Egyptians are able to drink from the Nile and not get sick while the rest of us would probably die just brushing our teeth in it. Not that we would brush our teeth in the Nile. I'm just making a point.

It's just all in how you grow up.

Personally, I'll take my hamburger so done it's black and crusty on the outside, my steak well done and tough, if necessary and my fish fried to a crisp.

Smakelijk.