(SCHMEGGA)
Boca, an Arizona restaurant that has served tacos featuring the meat of alligators, elk, kangaroos and rattlesnakes, has upped the ante with its latest Exotic Taco Wednesday offering: Next month, the restaurant will offer lion tacos. We’re prepared to taste-test the king of the jungle and report back here, if you want us to. Vote now!
The lion meat being used by Boca doesn’t come from an endangered species, according to the restaurant. “I’m doing the African lion to get my name out,” owner Bryan Mazon told the Arizona Star. “I’ve never tried it myself, but this one really caught my eye.” Mazon got the idea from another Arizona restaurant, which served lion burgers during last year’s South Africa-based World Cup. The restaurant sold out, but also encountered protesters.
Boca, gaining a rep for exotic tacos, plans lion-meat offering [Arizona Star]
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If the animal is not endangered, and thriving, I do not have a problem with it. If the people want it, they will continue to serve it.
I’m vegan… and when I wasn’t I would have eaten it. An animal is an animal.
what about human meat? humans are not endangered and thriving..
Loias loves baby baby back ribs. The other other white meat.
The problem with human meat is all those pesky laws regarding human rights, murder and war crimes.
Humans are not inherently cannibalistic. So, obviously, most have a problem with eating their own kind.
Let me turn the question back to you. Do you have a problem with lions eating wildebeests? Carnivores and omnivores eat animal flesh. Nature. Get over it.
No, you’re lion?
Probably, but it doesn’t matter – I’d rather have a cub sandwich.
You use the club sandwich to lure the lion over and then hit it with a club.
As long as it was farm raised/killed, at not from a protected pride/species/preserve, then all I have to say is smack the idiot who puts spices/sauce on it before even tasting it.
Right, I know. I cook a dish to perfection, and the first thing they do is dump salt on it without tasting.
Or ketchup. Or even worse, catsup!
ba-dum-CHH!
So it’s socially acceptable to eat duck, cow, chicken, lamb, ostrich, etc but random people are drawing the line at lions?
Eh…I don’t have much problem eating dumb animals. Cow, chicken, fish.
Animals like dogs/cats (big and small) are far more intelligent than livestock.
Agreed. Predators are usually more intelligent. It’s one reason I don’t eat octopus anymore; they’ve been shown to be wicked smart.
Probably the worse reasoning I have heard on Consumerist in a while.
So basically the only thing stopping you from eating people is the legal aspect.
At least you’ll always have their stupid cousin to eat – delicious squid!
Chickens and cows are both intelligent social animals. They may not show the wide range of emotions that cats or dogs show, but they’re there.
You appear to have never had to deal with livestock directly. Else, you wouldn’t think cows and chickens as being intelligent.
I’m fairly certain that pigs are considered more intelligent than domestic dogs or cats.
Yes. It’s their smarts that makes them so delicious!
Pigs are more intelligent than any of the animals you just named, including dogs and cats. Do you eat pig?
Well, according to the old urban legend, if you eat Chinese take-out, you’ve already eaten cat, so why not?
I mean, horse meat is said to be delicious, but there’s a cultural stigma associated with that, unless it is for dogs. American tastes are inconsistent and weird.
I’ve heard that in the US it’s not only cultural stigma, but because of the lack of regulation of drugs that are pumped into horses throughout their lifetime (steroids, tranquilizers, euthanasia meds, etc.) that make the meat dangerous for human consumption.
I have eaten a very popular sausage in Norway that contains among other animals, “hest”, which is horse. Yum!
I have also had whale meat stew. Ok, if you like fish-flavored beef stew.
Mmmmmm… winstrol meat.
Horse meat is delicious! Had horse tartar while visiting Japan and would like it again, cept it’s so taboo to eat here in the states.
Horse meat is delicious! I have had Ostrich, Rattlesnake, Emu, and Rat and enjoyed them all. I’ll be lining up for some sir-lion!
urban legend aside, cat is consumed throughout the world.
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actually, random people shouldn’t draw lines on lions…it might end up deadly
LMAO
You forgot about cats, dogs and pigeon….oh, don’t forget about the guinea pig….
For the record, I voted no because lions are predators and their meat probably tastes like anus. I’d taste a bite, but I wasting meat is a dick move.
Nine out of 10 cannibals agree; vegetarians taste better!
I voted no for the same reason. I’m trying to cut back on my meat intake anyway, so I pick carefully what I eat. What your food eats influences the taste greatly.
I voted no because it’s not too hard to guess who the Consumerist taste-tester in Arizona will be.
LMAO +1000
I think we should take it up a notch…how many lion tacos can Phil eat?
Having tasted lion jerky, I can confirm this. I like game meats, but predators generally taste so gamy that it’s just acrid and foul.
Alligator, elk and rattlesnake are all pretty tasty, though.
P.S. I also heard that PETA fully endorses this program, and hopes it continues on at other restaurants/diners.
Sure, but why taco? If you’re going for the novelty meat value, at least get a steak or something where you can really savor the flavor.
See my vest, see my vest,
Made from real gorilla chest!
Feel this sweater, there’s no better,
Than authentic Irish setter.
See this hat, ’twas my cat,
My evening wear – vampire bat,
These white slippers are albino,
African endangered rhino.
Grizzly bear underwear,
Turtles’ necks, I’ve got my share,
Beret of poodle, on my noodle
It shall rest!
See my vest, see my vest, see my vest!
I really like the vest.
That was spot on! You win the internet for today.
If it’s not endangered and thriving, and slaughtered humanely then there’s no real reason not to beyond contrived sensibilities about how certain animals are intrinsically for eating and others are not.
Granted I wouldn’t eat a cat, but I’m not about to stop other people if they’re into it. Which is quite fortunate for my two cats.
This is an interesting point. Do parrot owners have similar issues with eating chicken? I doubt it, but our society tends to equate the tabby cat along the same level as a lion and because both are cats, we wouldn’t eat them. I’d never eat a parrot that was someone’s pet, but I love chicken.
If you want to get into iffy grounds, my friend’s parents own a parrot, and feed her chicken. She loves it.
But then, there are some people who eat monkey meat, and that seems gross to me.
Well generally carnivores don’t taste that good. I mean, I’ve never tried it, but considering how domesticated they are I’d think that if cats tasted at all decent we’d be eating them left and right. I mean, rabbits are cute too, but we’ve definitely been eating them with greater frequency than cats.
I’ve fed my African Grey, Rose Breasted Cockatoo, and Green Cheek Conure well cooked chicken and egg before. Heck, they have a food for birds called egg food… guess what it contains?
As I have always said, I’ll eat a dog, but I won’t eat my/someone elses dog. Same with cat.
How would you slaughter a lion anyway? Pigs and cows can’t really jump. And they don’t really bite either. In fact, they are typically quite friendly with people they’ve never met before.
I’ve never been in touching distance of a lion, but it would seem like a lion slaughterhouse would have more problems than you do with say… hogs, chickens, or cows. Maybe docility is why we eat them. I’d bet that the lion is hunted, shot, frozen, and shipped.
None for me. Lions are too close to cats and cats are too much like dogs. Not enough degrees of separation.
I say yes, if only in a “eat them before they eat us” sort of way.
Here’s why I don’t eat predators (ok I eat fish…)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomagnification
Fish is the only wild animal allowed to be sold for food in the US. The deer, game birds etc. that are sold have been farm raised and meet usda guidelines. They’ve also been fed “chow” instead of their natural diet.
It is rare for carnivores to eat other carnivores. Food chain has a purpose.
I would definitely eat lions meat. An animal has given up its life, the only respectable thing us predators can do is to consume all of its meat. Putting lion meat in tacos to me is messed up. I’d much prefer a nice piece of grilled lion steak tenderloin or a roast.
Guys, I think they prefer African-American lions, k?
I see what you did there.
Haha
JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION TACO GET IN THE CAR
I lol’d
My only requirement would be no sour cream. Not a fan of sour cream.
Almost two years ago I spent a month in Switzerland, in the Francophone region called Romandy. After making one error with horse meat — I figured out that the first part of “entrecôte de cheval” mean rib-eye steak, but not that “de cheval” wasn’t just some fancy French cooking style, but a way to differentiate from rib-eye steak “de beouf” — I thought that something even more bizarre was being served when I saw signs at many restaurants regarding salad and the word “lion.” I thought it meant something well beyond grilled chicken over romaine.
After days of forgetting to look the full term up when I was at a computer, I finally saw an illustration of said salad, then slapped myself for not saying the term out loud as it is a loanword to English: “Salade dent-de-lion” is dandelion salad, involving weeds rather than lion meat.
(There is a more common French term for dandelions that focuses on the overnight diuretic effect consuming them has been known to have: “pissenlit.” That restaurateurs would use the less popular term “dent-de-lion” seems appropriate.)
I wouldn’t eat it. Lions are carnivores, so their meat is probably contaminated by the other animals they’ve eaten.
why not, a lion would eat me if it could
Cougar tacos proved to be quite to my taste, so I would not hesitate.
um..ew? how about some bear meat?
I really hope you are talking about cougars the animals, not the other commonly used meaning.
+1 for Beaver tacos
Tastes like chicken…
Had it before, not bad.
My grandfather worked for a fur company that did taxidermy during the heavy safari years up to the mid 60s.
I got to try a lot it unusual meats.
Lion, Tiger, Water Buffalo, monkey,ect.
Article from the Arizona Star and misspelled “Aizona”.. I wonder..
I doubt predators taste great…and there’s also the food chain energy pyramid, which stipulates that every step you move up in the food chain, approximately 90% of the useful energy is lost.
This means that a 1lb of ground lion meat = 10lbs of Kenyan = 100lbs of fish = 1,000lbs of locusts = 10,000lbs of grass! I mean, how inefficient can you get?
Please don’t support killing a beautiful animal for a stupid publicity stunt. We domesticated the animals we did for a reason. There’s no reason for this.
It would be interesting to to try one. I’d bet they’re GRRRRRREAT!!!
No, that’d be Bengal tiger meat,
I thought most cat meat (and cat-esque creatures) tasted terrible because it has an ammonia-like aftertaste. Maybe I’m wrong, but I sorta remember reading it somewhere.
According to the author of “Guns, Germs and Steel,” it’s actually pretty good. But I don’t think I could, even on a dare. I love cats.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/23/smallbusiness/world_cup_lion_burger/index.htm
Apparently these sources are fairly shady.
Im waiting for the Soylent Green Burgers to come out.
Okay, I got giggled by “Hakuna Frittata”.
That is all.
Maybe Alf knows…
Why not? I eat frosted flakes made from tiger meat. They’re greaaaaaaaaat!
I eat frosted flakes made from tiger meat ad they’re greaaaaaat! It’s true. I’m not lion.
This is *truly* sickening and perverted.
I think there’s a cuteness-to-flavor ratio for animal meat. We don’t eat much lamb because they are cute, while turkeys are kidna ugly. Real cows aren’t as cute as the cartoon cows we have in our mind and rabbit meat is not acceptable for almost anyone that grew up watching Bugs Bunny. Lions are really cute. They’d have to be reeeeeeeally tasty in order to tip the ration towards nom.
An exotic meat, and the best they can do with it is tacos or burgers? Lame.
I would feel guilty eating a fellow apex-predator. The closer to “human” in terms of intelligence the animal is, generally the more uneasy I’d feel about it.
So most apes, felines, canines, dolphins are pretty much off the table for me.
It’s also one of the reasons I try not to eat pork.
As for chickens, turkeys and cows – I’ve been around livestock. They’re practically ambulatory vegetables.
No, but only because lion populations aren’t doing so well, and because I’m trying to gradually eat lower on the food chain.
But I have eaten alligator, ostrich and kangaroo, and they were delicious.
Eating the meat of carnivores is about the least green thing you can do. Not mention the fact that it’s dangerous. You’re really eating everything the cat ate, and everything what the cat ate ate, and so on. Why do you keep hearing about the dangers of tuna and mercury? Because tuna are CARNIVORUS fish. As in at the top of the food chain.
It’s the same reason Milorganite causes cancer – because it’s made of human shit, and humans are at the tippy-top of Earth’s food chain. Get it?
I wouldn’t – not a fan of tacos.
So, if you ate a lion-meat taco, and your stomach started to make noises would it ROAR?
Im conflicted.
I dont want to eat a lion because they’re so damn cool.
But then again, if you were in the jungle – He would eat you just because he could.
They cannot be jungle cats if they are meant to be human food. They would be raised on a farm, and more domesticated. Like these fellas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SdYsOs8TpD4
It is mean to kill lions. each time you kill a lion, you are depriving the world of some intense cuteness.
It is also mean to keep them in deplorable conditions, which is almost certainly where the lion meat that this horrible restaurant procures will come from. Lions that no one wants any more, have been starved and neglected.
It makes me sick.
What kind of a restaurateur serves food he’s never tried himself? Oh right, I know – the one trying to drive business to his door with a cheap gimmick, and succeeds in getting his restaurant on the internet! I wouldn’t try it because this guy’s attitude says nothing good about the quality of the offering, even if his sources of lion meat are actually ethical. (Which, frankly, is unlikely.)
Me Man…Me Eat Meat….Me Like Kill Things…Me Must Compensate For Small Penis/Breasts…Me Natural, Like Ancestors…Me Believe Earth Flat and Sun Revolve Around Earth…Me Not Evolve Much From Ancestors…Me Macho, Macho Man
Guys want to eat lion for the same reason they want a Corvette or big truck….to compensate
Uh, they are large cats, just like the Consumerist mascot(s). You want cats slaughtered and eaten in the US because some dickhead in Arizona wants a gimmick?
Bleah. No way.
Hell no. My cat would smell it on my breath.
Honestly, if this gets any sort of legs as a controversy, I would expect the National Review to have somebody write a libertarian/Randian editorial about how this is the way you save endangered species – by convincing people to eat them, and therefore, want to raise them and sell them.
It’s a bit crazy and more than a little anthrocentric, but this is how they think, especially the Randians – nature exists to serve man, and in the final calculation, only things that have definable economic value to man have the right to exist.
I’ll eat almost anything on a taco.
Unlike a cow, a lion really would eat us if we didn’t eat it first.