Refreshing Indeed!

I am in the UK doing tourism research.  I always make it a habit of checking the local markets and the city market in Cardiff. It is refreshing to be in a culture that does not think beef and pork are only the tender and less tender muscle cuts.  A wander through the local market finds the beef monger displaying wares that include every single piece of an animal that can possibly be eaten like the brains, hearts, tongues, and more.  Seeing the whole pig in a display case from the tales to the head is also refreshing.

I have to ask those of us in culinary arts and hospitality education what we are doing to promote the muscle and offal of animals for public consumption, starting in the classroom and portrayed on the Food Network.  The complete and utter waste involved in growing and processing a living being and using a small percentage of the carcass is something we have to turn around.  We are a nation of immigrants who all used to eat every bit of an animal and now we eat so much less increasing the waste I just mentioned.

So please do your part to restore the virtues of home economics in our students and get them to cook and enjoy the whole animal.

By the way, I enjoyed my first taste of razor clams today.  What a treat and offered here in the fish market.