The one where I eat whale
Yes it’s controversial. Yes it’s against everything I’ve ever been taught, but when it’s there in the supermarket staring me in the face, I can’t resist the call. I wanted to try whale meat. I’ve wanted to try it ever since 1999 when the Makah were granted permission to hunt a single gray whale and eat it. And boy did I get flak for it. From my friends to my boyfriend I got loads of “I can’t believe you’re going to eat that.” Well what do you want me to do? Return the hunk of whale meat to the wild? No, it went into my belly (and my boyfriend’s too even though he claimed he’d never want to try it.)
The first problem I had with the whale meat was “how do you cook it?” Luckily, the World Council of Whalers has a Web site complete with recipes. And while Japan by no means relies on whaling for “cultural, nutritional and economic sustenance” it has been a part of Japanese culture for hundreds of years. Though, I found it interesting that although whale is no longer hunted “commercially” I was still able to purchase it at my local grocer. Someone’s making a profit on this meat and I don’t think it’s a scientist.
Long story short I cooked the meat and ate it. It was OK. It tasted kind of like steak, but was a lot more tender. I would prefer beef to this any day because beef comes with a lot less stigma and ire.
Pictures inside
This is the whale meat still in its package. Whale is called くじら (kujira) in Japanese. This whale was “raised” in Ishikawa prefecture. Here’s me holding the whale meat as proof.
Here’s the finished product. I cooked it with mushrooms and onions.
Tags: controversy, first time, Japan, Japanese culture, Makah, recipes, whale, whale meat, whaling
Hey Mel,
Never even thought whale would remotely taste like steak! Interesting. It’s got to be better for you than steak, too. Was it expensive? You are definitely an adventuresome girl!
Who was getting all angryface over you eating whale? It’s not like you were out harpooning the damn thing yourself (though that would probably be even more awesome, but I digress). I wonder if people would be okay with it if whales weren’t endangered – my money’s still on no, but I couldn’t begin to tell you why.
I don’t know, society I guess. A couple of my friends over here were a little scandalized that I would eat whale. There’s a documentary that was released recently about dolphin hunting in Japan and the way they hunt dolphin is really awful, but I didn’t eat DOLPHIN.
Was that The Cove?
Yeah, that’s the documentary or the “smear campaign” as they call it over here.
Fucking awesome! hehe.