Eating Dog

Meat turned out a little dry

This was the better of the two.

Well, not much to say here.  They were pretty good, a little bland, I wish they came with french fries.

JK!!! No I didn't eat those cute puppies, who the fuck do you think I am? Those were pet dogs running around the drug mansion. Note the distinction: PETS. Many people (re: my parents) make the border-line racist assumption that in Laos you  live in constant fear that someone's going to steal your dog and make a picnic out of it. They don't eat people's PETS (at least not until they die naturally...)

And yes, I ate dog.

Hey, it was a spur of the moment thing.

Tony's cousins had been teasing us about it for awhile and so we all said fuck it, why not? Asian people are right about everything else food related.

Of course the whole way there I noticed every single dog barking and my stomach felt queasy.  A sort of tense silence fell over our group as we rode in the back of the tuc-tuc. We were probably all thinking of ways to back out. Like probably all of you, I'm a huge dog lover and my first thought when I see one isn't usually "that looks pretty good."

And then we got there. It looked like a rack of ribs with a tail poking out. The butterflies left my stomach. We ordered beers and dog meat. It was darker then pork and a bit chewy.  We dipped it in a spicy brown paste. I was informed the brown paste was made from dog organs. Overall... it was pretty fucking good. Even Ressa ate it. And that was that, no big deal right?

Well, I got over it, but the rest of the world hasn't.  Try telling anyone back in states that you ate dog for the hell of it. Go ahead, try it.  They look at you like you said you molested a small blind child for the hell of it.

 I'm probably not going to convince you of anything whether I blather about "cultural relatvism", "ethocentrism", or "sociophallic psychodiarrhea." Dogs are revered here. It just seems wrong to eat them.

I understand.

But think about this.

Every time you eat a cow you are violating a Hindu taboo.  Does this bother you? Of course not.  But for Hindu's, eating a cow would be worse then eating a dog.  Shit, sometimes I eat cow every meal of the day. WOOPS!

And every time you eat pork you violate a Jewish taboo.  Let me assume that you don't give a shit. Maybe you do--but if you eat any meat at all, even chicken, you know that somewhere out there someone is really pissed at you for it. Does that particularly bother you? Probably not.

A quick side note: don't try to pull the "intelligence" or even the "cuteness" card. All I have to say is
 1. Pigs are smarter then dogs. Look it up. Doesn't seem to change much around here, huh?

2. Have you seen a lamb before?

My only point in all of this is although most of us can't stomach the idea of eating dogs, we're like, a product of society, man. It's a cultural taboo here. It isn't there. You might not "get it." You don't have to.  Just realize that every culture is different--and different doesn't mean, primitive, savage, or immoral. It means different. 

So remember that. Or else I'll eat your dog.