The Unvegan

Recent Posts

10 Years of Unvegan
A Quick Bite at Burrito Express
Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

‘Llama’

Greg Givan: Unvegan Hero

Looks like meat to me.
Looks like meat to me.

It takes a special type of person to realize the seemingly unlimited possibilities with eating meat. One of these special types of people is Greg Givan. Givan throws an annual barbecue, and this year his theme was “Grill around the Globe.”

The lineup sounds like an unvegan fantasy, “…Givan ordered yak (California), alligator (Louisiana), crocodile (Bolivia), elk (New Zealand), boar (Texas), llama (California and elsewhere), kangaroo (Australia), as well as antelope sausage.”

Strange Meats: Alpaca

It doesn't taste like wool.
It doesn’t taste like wool.

Alpaca wool is known to be some of the softest and warmest wool in the world, which made it even more intriguing to me as a meal. When I was traveling in Peru, I knew the meat of that woolly animal had to be tasted.

My quest wasn’t easy, and the translations on the menus didn’t make it any easier. During the course of the trip, I happened upon a dish called “German Nicket to the Pleasure,” “Red Shoe,” “Chicken a la Coca-Cola” and the most frightening of all, “Chicken Locust.” At a restaurant in Puno, I ordered the seemingly simple “Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.” When it arrived, it was spaghetti, some sort of yellowish sauce and a massive chicken breast just plopped atop the noodles, where you might typically picture a diminutive meatball.