Hey everyone, thanks for checking in for another exciting episode of your favorite YouTube series. We will be starting this year off with a bang with yet another amazing Japan-themed list.
Well, funny story, I was trying to search "cute horses" on the internet, but mistakenly I wrote "cut-horses" instead of "cute." Trust me, it was the worst mistake that I've made so far this year.
Anyway, traumatic images aside, the mistake actually got me thinking about some of the weirder Japanese foods that would probably disturb some non-Japanese food lovers. These meals are controversial because of the questionable ethics behind how they are made, and how much of a cultural shock they represent to foreigners when they are served on a table.
I want to make it clear that I strongly disagree with comments calling people "disgusting" for eating certain things. In some places, people eat different things. That's not disgusting, it's just the way it is. Y'all could be a lot more open-minded. I am not going to lie, the horse-eating idea makes me feel uncomfortable but at the same time I'm adventurous too and open-minded too and there's no actual logical reason why people in the US don't eat horse.
You've probably heard the expression "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse"? Well, that may have been the case in the UK after they had accidentally eaten horse meat during their infamous Horse Meat Scandal. Pretty sure they didn't complain about the taste until they found out what it was.
As a matter of fact, eating horse meat was quite common in numerous Asian, South American, and European cultures in the prehistoric era. Horses provided much needed protein which we needed for survival and pretty much every ancient culture has a meal made from horse meat. I mean, from Kyushu in Southern Japan to delicacies in Mexico, Switzerland, Indonesia and even Uzbekistan.
In Italy, horse meat has always been a super common thing, both raw and cooked. Many people grew up eating horse meat on a regular basis in Germany, and it's delicious food for them too.
Let's go back to Japan. From the 6th century up until the 1860's, it was prohibited to eat any four-legged animals in Japan as a result of the popularity of Buddhist idea of reincarnation. This meant that the tasty looking cow or deer you wanted to eat for dinner may have been the reincarnation soul of your ancestors or someone beloved to you. So generally ancient people were hesitant to eat them.
In addition to this, there was also the pretty hefty punishment of 100 days of fasting administered to anyone caught roasting the flesh of a cow or horse. So yeah, no wonder nobody ate them in any case.
By the 1960s, however, the advent of motorized vehicles removed the dependence on horses with the result that they started suddenly looking really good as an item on the menu.
In Japan, this raw horse meat is called sakura-niku. It is a low-fat, tender meat with a slightly sweet flavor. When served as sashimi, it is cut into small slices and served with a sauce made of soy, onions and ginger. Despite it being eaten raw, there's a very low incidence of food-borne illness in Japan. And I chalk it up to the high quality of the food components and the rigorous preparation process.
The best places to try freshly prepared horse meat in Japan would be the Tohoku, Oita, Nagano, and Kumamoto regions as well as the Izakaya bars. Horse meat is the most popular dish in Kumamoto.
The demand for this delicacy in Japan can get so high that more than 300 horses were shipped from Winnipeg to Japan in 2016, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Some of the most popular horse dishes you may want to try include Basashi, Yakiniku, and Sakuranabe.
Basashi: Japanese basashi belongs to the sashimi group of dishes and, as you know, this means that it is served raw in thin slices. Flavor-wise, it has a slightly sweet flavor, and depending on the maturity, its color can range from pink to dark red. Basashi (馬刺し) is also known as sakura-niku (桜肉), which translates to cherry meat (because of its pink color). It is lean, juicy, and tastes a bit like lean, slightly chewier beef.
Horse Yakiniku: Yakiniku is a kind of horse meat BBQ cooking that is popular all across Japan. It is super tasty and popular across Japan, although it is more popular with beef than horse. It's typically listed on the menu as bagushi (‘horse skewers’) or baniku (‘horse meat’).
Sakuranabe: Nabe in Japanese refers to hotpot dishes, and this hotpot dish has horse meat as its main component. This dish is prepared in a similar manner to sukiyaki, in that the meat is cooked at your table in a simmering pot of dashi, shoyu, and mirin, which complement the natural sweetness of the horse meat.
However you slice it, and bias aside, horse meat has been scientifically proven to be low-fat, protein-rich and high in calories. It is also a rich source of iron and ultimately better for your heart than some other more traditional sources of meat. So if you are adventurous, then why not give it a try? See you in the next episode…
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