 |
|
|
 Entertainment | Restaurants & Dining | February 2007 
San Juan Market Features Exotic Tablefare
 El Universal
| | Some eat the meat of exotic animals simply because - in some circles - it´s become the fashion. |
Mexico is becoming a lucrative market for purveyors of exotic meats such as crocodile, wild boar, venison, buffalo or lion, all much sought after by chefs trying to satisfy patrons´ demanding palates and by consumers who attribute curative properties to the unusual fare.
Some Mexicans believe that eating skunk soup helps heal skin infections or that a lion or wild boar filet can increase one´s physical strength, but others eat the meat of such animals simply because - in some circles - it´s become the fashion.
The exotic meats can be bought at the San Juan Market in the central part of Mexico City, where butchers provide a receipt and a certificate of authenticity for each cut they sell.
Ostrich, quail, suckling pig, young goat, ram and rabbit meat - domestic and imported from New Zealand, the United States and Europe - is sold in the market where chefs, housewives, connoisseurs of exotic tablefare and ill people desperate for a cure for their ailments come to find what they need.
"All the products we sell, even though they sound rather exotic, are (sold) under the strictest regulations and are authorized by the secretariats of agriculture and the environment," Luciano Álvarez, who runs a shop in the San Juan Market, told EFE.
Álvarez, whose family has been in the meat-selling business for five generations, acknowledged that some rare species of animals have been disappearing from the market shelves, despite the fact that there are farms that specially raise animals like buffalo - which is imported from the United States - as well as guinea fowl, freshwater gar and "xoloescuintle," a type of pre-Columbian hairless dog.
Another shopowner said leg of lion is sold at the market, and he displayed a few chunks of meat he said were from the king of beasts.
"We sell everything and we have a list of 150 products, including snails, pheasant, duck and other animals," he told EFE.
He also said most of the customers are upper class people and restaurant owners, but also patronizing the market are "low-income families who pool their money for several months to be able to buy a deer or a skunk."
"People with few resources really like venison and lamb, just to taste it, but also others come ... to buy a skunk and make soup," which some people say cures skin diseases, he added.
"We offer lion meat only by request, because they´re raised on farms. Also, because it´s a rather tough meat and a little sharp-tasting, you have to get an animal that´s not too young and not too old," he said.
At the San Juan Market, one can buy leg of wild boar for about US$60 per kilogram (US$27 per pound and leg of lion for US$80 per kilogram (US$36 per pound), and sellers will even provide their customers with written recipes or will give them suggestions on how to best enjoy the taste of the unusual meats. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us