When my dad was a boy and would go fishing with his dad, a fairly standard provision for them was raw hamburger spread on crackers.
I can remember trying it myself when I was younger, probably the first time he told me about that. I liked it all right. It’s not terribly far off the beaten gustatory path. If you’ve had steak tartare, or even sufficiently rare beef, you know what raw cattle flesh tastes like in general, and that’s pretty much the vibe.
I thought of it again when I read about Japan’s “carnivore girls”—”young, aggressive women” who feast on raw meat (as in pork, chicken, and horse) twice or thrice weekly at the featured sushi restaurant. These are in direct contrast to “herbivore boys,” or young Japanese men who’ve lived their entire lives in a time of economic malaise and are consequently less interested in sex and providing for a family.
And, you know, raw meat. I guess.
The story’s kind of a mess, and I suspect a bit of inflicted relevance here. Moreover, I’m sure there’s offense to be taken, particularly at the portrayal of a young woman’s aggression being some sort of novelty in 2011. What I’m really chewing on, though, is the casual description of these meek young men as this incredibly complex socioeconomic phenomenon, complete with diffused fault. I suspect it’s better explained by a society that implicitly permits their behavior by insufficiently punishing it.
Wonder if there’s a “nanny state” argument to be made? Stay tuned.
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I don’t know about the japanese boy thing, but the cannibal burger was a pretty hot item at the Camellia grille, back in my day. My roommate LOVED raw burger meat. Alas, the Cannibal Special is no longer on the menu.
You think commercial meat’s any more dangerous than it’s ever been? I wonder sometimes.