Why is chicken called chicken even when we put it on our table?
Cow is called beef. Pig is called pork. Sheep is called uh....lamb, sort of!
I am a firm believer in children understanding where food comes from. We love to grow vegetables in the garden so they can dig up their own potatoes and pick their own tomatoes after they've watched them ripen on the vine.
But I've always struggled with explaining the whole "we eat animals" conversation. To my children, animals are pets.
Mostly I've gotten away with it due to the aforementioned naming conventions. OK, Seb is old enough now he's caught on to the game but plays along to humour me. Abigail, however, has remained blissfully unaware and that's the way I want to keep it for as long as possible.
Yesterday, the rug got pulled out from under me.
Marc roasted a chicken for dinner. It was beautiful. I put it on the table to rest before carving and when Abigail asked me what it was I told her it was a chicken.
She was horrified. She wanted to know where the feathers had gone. And where had the head gone? This looked all a bit too much like a chicken and too little like a chicken. She lost her appetite and wouldn't touch a bite. Of anything.
Now I'm not sure if I should rain on her parade and tell her about her beloved McNuggets. Thoughts?
10 comments:
chicken is poultry would be another way to go.
Now why didn't I think of that?!?!?
What I didn't tell you was that she sat through the entire meal going cock-a-doodle-doo over and over and over and over again until none of us wanted to eat!
So...
chicken = chicken
cow = beef
lamb = sheep (ish, young sheep)
mutton = sheep
pig = pork
But what about:
meat (as in "meat curry" = goat)...
That is so funny. Poor little girl is going to be scared to death when you put a turkey on the table. You might want to start preparing for that one.
Bless her litle heart! Jack went through that, too, but he regained his appetite for meat before too much time had elapsed.
Having grown up on a farm, I never had to learn this -- I just knew it. My kids are city people and I don't recall them having any issues with this at all. They ate what they liked and that was it. Abigal is a gem with the cock a doodle do thing.
What have you called fish? And the sushi thing I think you have mentioned before. Are you going to explain how that is not cooked?
Great paradox and a good lesson in life to the little ones about Darwinism and the food chain. I.E we are at the top...
You ever hear the saying.. Everybody likes steak, but nobody wants to kill the cow... Its true...
Just don't mention to them that the Pot Belly North Korean Dictator eats dog. That would be a little shocking.
..and, Joe, the French are quite fond of horsemeat, or so I'm given to understand. Gives me shivers to think of it.
And rabbit (le lapin) and snail (l'escargot)
Never eaten horse, don't think I'll cross that line.
I've had rabbit, buffalo, Elk, Alligator, Ostrich, Deer (venison). I plan to eat some pretty weird stuff when I visit India and China in the near future.
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