Meet My Dinner

It seems to be a generally accepted concept that the more time and raw ingredients put into a dish, the better it is. Pizza? Penguin Pizza might be delicious and Digorno sure is convenient, but what could be better than hand-made dough covered with your own choosing of sauces, cheeses, and toppings. Salad Dressing? Paul Newman has his talents, but bring together olive oil, red-wine vinegar, herb du province, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper (Dad: did I miss anything?) and you’ve just showed that movie star who’s boss. Grilled Chicken? Might as well start with a live chicken!

Dinner, meet the world. World meet my dinner. Thursday night I was greeted home by these 3 balls of feathers which were to promptly become my meal. Though I had been prepared for this eventuality by my some of my fellow volunteers in training, it was still very surprising to be faced with the animals themselves. I’ve never killed an animal before, so I expected it to be difficult to reconcile emotionally. But instead of feeling sympathy, pitty, or anger, I only felt….purpose. These weren’t wild animals with families that they had to feed.  Nor were they house pets which had been loved and cared for. These were chickens which had been born, feed, housed, and delivered solely for the moment where they would be converted from galinha (chicken) to frango (poultry). Without that eventuality, they would have never existed in the first place. So as I ended their admittedly short lives with a few strokes of my knife, I was looking forward to reaping the rewards of my work and not worrying about the karmic response to my actions.

Yes, the conversion from galinha to frango was messy. Yes, de-feathering the birds took a long time. Yes, removing the innards was incredibly disgusting. Yes, cooking them over an indoor coal fire made my eyes water. Yes, it took a full two bucket baths to really get rid of the smell. But yes, it was totally worth it. Just like eating cookies that you've labored over, it always tastes better when you make it yourself.

Moma’s home made from scratch

Well not quite

Toasted over flames

They be tastin quite right

Gorillaz -Superfast Jellyfish