By now you've surely ready about the English horse meat scandal. Scientists first found horse DNA in the meatballs at IKEA in England, prompting the disposable furniture seller to pull tons of frozen boxes from their inventory. Now horse meat is popping up in all sorts of ground meat blends causing customers to question their every burger.
France, of course, is jumping at the opportunity to snub the Brits. Chefs across the country have spurred a resurgence as trendy restaurants put horse meat back on their menus after a multiple-decade decline in consumption of the meat.
Of course, every time I think of exotic meat and burgers, Twisted Root jumps into my head. But the popular burger chain known for featuring buffalo, kangaroo, beavers and the rest of the zoo, has yet to feature horse meat on the menu and likely won't any time soon.
"I've had an offer but I turned it down," Jason Boso, the owner of Twisted Root said. Boso added that bear and lion meat were also considered but never featured on the menu, presumably because they're often realized as stuffed animals or children's toys.
Whether or not an animal is lovable, as Boso puts it, is a valid argument for some. It's hard for Americans to visualize eating an animal widely thought of as a companion or beast of burden. Or perhaps we're less inclined to eat horse, because it's called horse. Unlike cows and pigs, which become beef and pork respectively as soon as they're slaughtered, a horse is always a horse. Of course.
