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

‘Strange Eats’

1/27/2010 Los Angeles

Triped Out at Super Pho & Teriyaki

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Any signs of organs?

Recently a little pho place opened down the street from me and called itself Super Pho & Teriyaki. Anything that starts with super must be pretty cool, so I took a stroll down the road with my friend so we could get ourselves a taste. The place is pretty tiny and nondescript, but had enough tables open for us. We ordered at the counter and I decided to get their House Pho. This included meat balls, brisket, tendon and tripe. A few more organs and I would have had enough to build a whole cow from scratch in my stomach.

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1/4/2010

Strange Meats: Bife de Lomo

Couldn't just bring the whole cow?
Couldn’t just bring the whole cow?

If you live in Argentina, Bife de Lomo isn’t exactly a strange meat, but anyone traveling there from the US is bound to find this cut of beef strange. No, it isn’t from some strange part of the cow, and is in fact essentially the same as a Filet Mignon, but this Argentinian beef should never be confused with the typical Filet Mignon. Weighing in at at least 12 ounces, this beef simply melts in your mouth, saving you all the annoying time associated with chewing and allows you to get more meat in your mouth faster.

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12/7/2009

Strange Meats: Patagonian Lamb

A little stretch before eating at Don Pichon.
A little stretch before eating at Don Pichon.

The Asado beef of Argentina is world renowned and delicious because of the fertile lands of The Pampas. Yet, when you begin to head south towards the end of the world, beef takes a backseat to lamb. In the land of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, Patagonian Lamb reigns supreme.

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11/5/2009

Strange Meats: Mongolian Mutton

They have no idea what's coming.
They have no idea what’s coming.

Some of you may be wondering where I got that amazing picture of a sheep in the back of a car. The answer lies in this entry.

Now, mutton isn’t inherently a strange meat. Lamb chops, lamb gyros and lamb meatballs can be found all over the USA. It’s most definitely one of the top meats consumed in the USA, but the mutton I ate in the far east wasn’t normal by any means.

My day in Inner Mongolia, China, began just as any other. My Chinese friend was cracking jokes as he always does, but this time he made a joke about how we Americans would be catching our own dinner that night. This was a scary thought, but as we embarked on our journey for the day, I forgot about it while lost in thought in the Inner Mongolian countryside. Now and then, we would pass flocks of sheep, walking around and eating everything they could see. Then, we stopped at one of the flocks.

“It’s time,” my friend said.

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10/7/2009 Japan

Strange Meats: Kobe Beef

Mmm marbly.
Mmm marbly.

Kobe Beef is a world renowned form of meat that seems to have taken upon mythical status. It is exotic, yet signs for Kobe beef can be found everywhere. Technically speaking, most of the “Kobe Beef” outside of Japan isn’t really Kobe beef at all. The correct term for this is Kobe-style beef, which employs similar concepts but isn’t quite the same. Many restaurants just say Kobe beef because no one really knows the difference and to tell customers the difference would scare off potential buyers. True Kobe beef is only made in the Hyogo prefecture in Japan, which the city of Kobe is the capital of.

The best way to get real Kobe beef is to go straight to the source, Kobe, Japan. I was lucky enough to find myself in Kobe one day, so I didn’t have to add a thousand dollar plane ticket onto what would already be the most expensive steak of my life.

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7/29/2009

Destination: Namibia

It looks like I’ve found the next stop on my quest for a meaty utopia. No, not Taco Bell. This time I hear a whole country calling my name: Namibia!

According to an eye-opening article from WHL, Namibia sounds like a paradise on Earth. It is entitled Namibia: A Truly Meat-Loving Country, by Rachel Harlech-Jones. In the article, Harlech-Jones writes about how the country didn’t even seem to know what a vegetarian was when she first went to Namibi (apparently they now know what a vegetarian is, but “still do not really know why vegetarians exist.”) This has nothing to do with a bad language exchange since their official language is English. Rather, they are just my type of people, constantly confused by people who don’t want to eat meat. 

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7/10/2009

Strange Meats: Chicken Head

No veggies here!
No veggies here!

It’s been a while since I’ve written about one of my strange meat escapades, so here’s a new one.

Hiking in the Cordillera Mountains of the Philippines, I got to experience some of the freshest food I’ve ever eaten. Along the way, I stayed in local homes and ate the way that the locals ate. I quickly learned that Chicken Adobo is a local specialty and although adobo can be found throughout the Latin American world, I found it to be a bit different in the Philippines.

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5/8/2009

Strange Meats: Octopus

Just your normal buffet...
Just your normal buffet…

In honor of the Detroit Red Wings being in the playoffs and beating the Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks last night, I decided today would be a great opportunity to highlight the consumption of octopus. (For more information on why that is a reason to highlight octopus, please click here).

My first octopus-eating experience came while I was living in Japan. I attended an event that had a typical array of buffet-like foods, when I suddenly came across bowls of tentacles. One of the bowls had boiled octopus, while the other was fried. Taking a bit of each, I sat down to eat that eight-armed wonder of the sea.

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4/16/2009

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.

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3/17/2009 Santa Monica

Eating Ostrich at Broadway Deli (CLOSED)

It looks good until you see the pickle...
It looks good until you see the pickle…

Conveniently placed in the Third Street Promenade, I decided to give Broadway Deli a try. For a deli, they didn’t have too huge of a variety of interesting sandwiches, and most of the menu items would have required me to remove vegetables. One item, however, caught my eye. This was the Fresh Ground Ostrich Burger. Always intrigued by new and strange meats, I thought this would be a good idea. I made sure to order without the lettuce, tomato and red onions, and to throw on some cheddar cheese for good measure. When the burger arrived, I noticed that Broadway Deli had committed the highest of unvegan treason. A pickle on my plate!

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