Do you eat it or feed it?

I recently had a conversation about how foods we eat in some countries are considered strange in other countries. For example, in Japan "Unagi" or eel (most often served grilled with a bbq like sauce over rice) is common. But many Americans would cringe at the thought of eating eel. I surprised my Japanese friend by saying that its one of my favorite Japanese foods. (Of course, I should admit that I ate it and decided it was delicious, BEFORE I was told what type of fish I was eating. )

Then I was asked to name a food that Americans eat that Japanese people would cringe at. That was easy I said in Minnesota many people hunt, so eating deer meat is common.

In Nara, deer are considered sacred and it is a common tourist attraction to feed the deer in Nara Koen (Park). Here is a video of when Watanabe Sensei, Mihwa san and Bouen chan visited in June and we fed the deer rice crackers. As Mihwa-san is feeding the deer, her daughter is saying "kowai" = frightening! The deer can be pretty aggressive if they think you have food - one later jumped over the barrier to check Mihwa-san's pockets for more food.



So, how about you, in your corner of the world - do you feed deer or eat deer?
Would you try eel? I'd love to hear comments about your experiences with foods considered common in one place and strange in another depending on which country you live in?




In this second video, Bouen-chan builds up her courage to feed the deer. We had given them a stack of deer senbei (rice crackers) and learned that the paper wrapper for the senbei was edible too! Which cuts down on the litter in the park.