quote:
Originally posted by kaj225:
I was absolutely mortified that he ate a guinea pig. I know it's their custom in Ecuador but it is a pet in many other countries. The next thing you know is that he will be heading to Vietnam and trying dog.
I came about one inch from having a plate of spicey dog meat in Phnom Penh, but then spotted Rover's head on the platter, and it just didn't work.
In Vietnam, the southerners generally think dog meat is repulsive, all the moreso since dogs are considered to be smart ("smart like people" as one person said). If you see dog meat in southern VN it's because of the large number of northern transplants since 1975.
Both dog and cat are eaten in the north (Hanoi). It's a culinary migration from southeast China (note that the Thais, Cambodians, Loatians, and southern Vietnamese typically don't eat dog meat).
Several years ago there were some serious and interesting side effects from the bird flu scare. North Vietnamese rice cultivation was suddenly being decimated by field rats. Why? The cats which preyed on field rats were being captured and sold in China as a substitute for chicken and duck. The Hanoi government put a ban on selling cats in order to save the rice harvest.
At the same time in Cambodia they had a slightly different problem: the field rats were being captured in large numbers as a poultry substitute. It wasn't so gross as it sounds, from what I learned. Field rats feed almost exclusively in rice paddies, so they tend to be plump and well-fed. Nothing like dirty city rats.