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Lemurs aren’t the only ‘green beings’ served in upscale restaurants around the world.

Today’s Atlantic Food Channel features David Nakamura’s “I Ate Whale Meat”.  Nakamura shares the fact that most Japanese don’t eat whale, and that the determination to continue eating the meat comes from the ‘old guard’, who refuse to be pushed around by the Americans.

The Aussies and New Zealanders are ‘good guys’, but they’re not prevailing on the issue either.

anti-whaling protestors demonstrated in London in early March, 2009Most Japanese young people either haven’t eaten whale meat or don’t care to. The whaling industry is trying to stimulate demand, serving whale meat in school lunches.

Admitting mixed financial results and cost concerns, the Institute for Cetacean Research, the organization behind Japan’s whaling programme and Kyodo Senpaku, which operates the whaling fleet, announced last winter that they were closing their restaurant Yushin.

As a Japanese whale addendum, David Nakamura’s interview subject says that it was the Americans who encouraged Japanese to eat whale meat for protein, in the rebuilding years after World War II. Even if true — the world has gotten smarter since then.

I will relate my own cultural story about eating unusual animals. In all honesty, had I let the dinner proceed, I would probably be a vegetarian today. Reality is that I’m trying to eat very consciously, local, free range, little beef, etc. but I am not a vegetarian.

Monkey Brains

Years ago, I sat down to dinner in a very exclusive restaurant in China. Luckily I was with a dear colleague and friend, a South Korean man who handled me beautifully and had none of the paternalism associated with South Korean men at the time.

Monkey for sale, Gangzhou, ChinaIn my role as head of design and product development for Victoria’s Secret, I was accustomed to honorary dinners and banquets. I’m proud to say that I was very popular working in developing countries, not being one to sit in my five-star hotel room, waiting for product appear. i was always in the fire pits, so to speak.

I have an adventurous, Cultural Creative taste for food and exotic experiences. And I try very hard to acknowledge and honor international customs different from my own.