Seal meat has been put on to the menu in some of Canada’s top restaurants as part of a patriotic backlash against a European Union ban.
Aficionados laud the dark lean meat as rich, gamey and healthy, while critics deride it as rubbery, tough and overpowering.
But while the culinary reviews and moral debates on seal may be mixed, Canadian restaurants with the marine mammal on the menu are reporting a sudden surge in its popularity.
A ban by the European Union on Canadian seal products, imposed this summer, has provoked a patriotic backlash among the country’s normally placid citizens. Anger at the EU ruling, combined with the curiousity of tourists, has driven soaring demand for dishes such as pan-seared seal filet, seal stroganoff, seal pate and seal burgers.
Benoit Lenglet, a French chef who has been promoting the meat as a delicacy and offers a range of seal appetisers at his Montreal restaurant, has received emailed threats from European animal rights activists wishing him a death as bloody as a clubbed seal.
But Andree Garcia, the owner and chef of Les Iles en Ville, says the EU ban has been “great advertising” – and as a result has moved up seal dishes from occasional specialities to a daily regular.
“Seal has become extremely popular since everybody started talking about it,” she said. “We have Canadian diners who want to support the seal industry and we have tourists who had never heard of it before. We get a lot of customers from Europe and they all want to taste seal.”
[More]
Completely off topic but I changed a sidebar add today to reflect an old unit I used to belong to many years ago. So many names I know — so much history down the drain as people forget and others pass on.
http://www.canadianprovostcorps.ca/mphoto-25.htm
There was a time when I was one of these people and thoughout my career they remained friends and still do. Not a large unit but a very important one.
They were (and remain under a new name) the eyes and ears of the CO just as our civilian police do this very day. In the present day our courts are our CO’s but in my view lawyers are attempting to blind them. Our courts are the people who give them power and as Peter Van Loan was bitching today…we are losing control because our judges do not recognize that fact and police are becoming garbage.
Our judges are going blind because they are really stupid and prospective police officers which we depend on for our safety see it also. As a result they are going blind, deaf and dumb. More to the point, new recruits are NOT signing up and I do not blame them. They are being betrayed by fools and there will come a day when a judge screams for help as someone is breaking into his residence and the police are going to take the “long way round” because they won’t care.
Point: When the C Pro C was changed (thanks to Paul Hellyer) many left. Members with a lot of training went to civilian agencies in the years that followed. Nothing has changed as the military police continue to bleed members other than the fact that smart people no longer want to be part of our security apparatus. Why would anyone volunteer to become a police officer when they can, in a nightmare, envision a mind boggling event like this.
I wouldn’t and I tell every young person I know not to “go there”. Peter is right — we have a big problem on our hands and we have a choice. We can get behind our cops or we can support weepy lawyers. I prefer the former.
Why?
Because that judge can’t save you in an emergency but a highly motivated police officer can. There is a difference.
I recall the Greenpeace people having their foot soldiers on Bank Street one bright spring afternoon trying to gain converts and (doing what they do best) begging for donations – they were a couple of younger folks, the conversation we sort of like this as the young man with his binder stepped when I got near:
Young man: Do you like seals
Me: Yup
Young lady: You do?
Me: You bet I do, I like them boiled, I like them BBQ’d, and I like their tender little livers fried up in lots of butter with onions and mushrooms.
– it flustered them so much they almost fell down trying to get away from me.
Seal meat makes a darned hearty meal, and let me tell you, on a cold winters day there’s nothing like a feed of seal to warm you up.
I’ve never had seal. I’ll have to see if any of the local restaurants offers it.
I would certainly try it unless it was priced like caviar and if I could find it easily.
Time for a Google search for local restaurants serving seal meat.
I love vegetarians: Rare in a nice wine sauce with fava beans LOL.
Oh, as long as they are killed as humanely as possible there is no difference between chicken and seals as food. Those who want to be vegetarians for their personal ethical reasons or dietary belief are free to do so or convince others to be vegetarians: Just don’t try to force me to be a vegan !
Pingback: Jack’s Newswatch » Blog Archive » The lady continues to astound