We Eat What We Want

Appears in
Everything on the Table
Everything on the Table

By Colman Andrews

Published 1992

  • About

“One of the easiest forms of pretense to break down is the pretense of enthusiasm for exotic foods. Just bring on the exotic foods.”

—ROBERT BENCHLEY, MY TEN YEARS IN A QUANDARY

“Some days you eat the bear. Some days the bear eats you.”

—PREACHER ROE (ATTRIB.)

Jate Bear once, in the 1970s, at a Russian restaurant in Helsinki. I remember it as rich and slightly sweet, not unlike wild boar. I’d eat it again. My wife, on the other hand, has never eaten bear (or for that matter boar), and almost certainly never will. The whole idea of consuming wild game distresses her—both the slaughtering-of-big-eyed-innocents aspect of the thing and the flavor of game meat’s (usually) dark, strong flesh. She doesn’t like the dark meat of chicken or turkey, either. (I’ve already described her feelings about rabbit.)