Last night I flicked on the cable tv we share at my house - something I rarely do - and was treated to a commercial for a show called “Bizarre Foods.” In it, some guy travels around to other parts of the world and eats things that the average American finds disgusting. This particular commercial consisted of the dude at some kind of street vendor’s stand nibbling on what appeared to be a skinned cooked rat-on-a-stick.
My first response was not disgust, but rather curiosity if there could be some kind of connection to the news I’ve been hearing about the price of rat meat sky-rocketing in other parts of the world:
The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.
With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel (69 pence) from 1,200 riel last year.
Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.
I know it’s probably just a coincidence, but some small part of me wondered if maybe a show like that could ever be used to acclimatize Americans to the idea of eating different sources of foods than we were customarily raised with - something which would undoubtedly happen during times of crisis and economic hardship.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
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