Kitchen Garden Forum

Anyone remember when Chinese restaurants first arrived here, and the big scandal then was cat food in the meals?
We were in China a few years ago on the occasion of the solar eclipse, and though we never questioned the contents of the food, we did have some concern over basic food hygiene, especially at temperatufes in the high thirties. However, the only problem seemed to come from ice cream - which we were told not to buy, though some did.
Dog meat was offered quite openly, and dog skins could be bought in shops. In a country where food is quite scarce, they eat what they can get hold of.

There are other sources of protein.

The best way to feed the 9 billion people expected to be alive by 2050 could be to rear billions of common houseflies on a diet of human faeces and abattoir blood and grind them up to use as animal feed, a UN report published on Monday suggests. Doing so would reduce the pressure on the Earth's forests and seas as food sources.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... ecurity-un

I did see a report recently saying that dried insects would be the food of the future. Apparently there are experiments under way to pilot trials. Hopefully I won't be around by the time they become a compulsory way of life in our diets,

Think I'd go veggie (not an unattractive option) before eating insects. And I'd rather resort to the old 'bucket and chucket' in the bean trench than feed insect larvae fed on human excrement to animals. Just how convoluted is the food chain going to get?

Silly me once tried a chocolate covered grasshopper - bit like a Chinese - you'd be hungry again in no time! (or am I just greedy )

Westi

In the Olden Days, not that long ago, the outside one hole privvy was situated so thet the family pig could avail itself of any protein left in the human excrement.
How about molluscs? I read somewhere that one could pack slugs in salt to rid them of their slime, and then presumably after some processing, eat them Slug stew anyone? I often think that our allotments could yield more protein in this way.
Has anyone dried and ground up couch grass roots and eaten them added to stews etc?

I'll 'pass' on those menu options I think Gwen!

My Gran on my mother's side came from a large family of farm workers and the rare treat of picking the meat from a rabbit's head went to the lodger, 'cos he paid!

MW