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

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