The New York Times on Hip-Hop Cuisine(ouch):In an age when diners scoop marrow from roasted beef shins and dissect the feet of pigs raised by people they’ve met, rabbit certainly seems like the right meat at the right time.
American rabbit is typically raised on smaller farms, not in some giant industrial rabbit complex. The meat is lean and healthy, and makes an interesting break from chicken. For people learning to butcher at home, a rabbit is less daunting to cut up than a pig or a goat. And those who are truly obsessed with knowing where their food comes from can raise it themselves.
Still, it’s a rabbit, the animal entire generations know as the star of children’s books and Saturday-morning cartoons, and as a classroom mascot.
I have very fond memories of an angora rabbit (Chester) my dad raised with a collie puppy (Ginger a.k.a. Devil Spawn) when I was a kid... so I admit I'm one of those people who talks a good game about "slow food" and "knowing where your food comes from" who is a little bit weirded out about the idea of eating a childhood pet.
Though to be fair, after Chester died, the subsequent rabbits my dad got were pretty lame and not really all that awesome. While raising Chester alongside a puppy seemed to instill in him a devil-may-care attitude uncommon in most prey animals... the more conventional rabbits seem to emanate more of OHMIGODPLEASEDONTKILLME!!! vibe all the time, that was distinctly less fun. So maybe I wouldn't mind eating those lame-o rabbits. Who can say?
I'm honestly not bothered by any charges of hypocrisy from the Jonathan Safran Foer wing of the vegetarians... hey, I don't like broccoli either, so what... but it is something I want to get over. So before winter ends I may post about some braised Easter Bunny... you have been warned.
photo by flickr user chronographia used under a Creative Commons license
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