In the Island Life section of the Honolulu Advertiser today (Wednesday, April 14, 2010) the main story was entitled "Buying the whole bird", which was about how to "enjoy value, freshness, versatility by learning to cut apart a chicken." It was accompanied by pictures with captions like, "1. start with a fresh whole chicken. 2. After folding the wing tips back, cut in to remove the leg, breast. 3. With the chicken upright, cut the "oyster" (1) from the chicken. 4. Pop off the hip joint on the chicken and cut off the leg piece. 5. Do the same on the other side. 6. Cut down the center, separating the breast meat, down the ribs. Breasts may be boned out or left on the bone for the deeper flavor."
And this is just the captions to the pictures, wait until you read the article where there are wonderful statements like, "Why bother with the whole when what you want is the parts?" "Whole birds are versatile, they can be roasted in their entirety or cut to culinary whimsy." "A single whole chicken yields two breast portions for pan roasting, dark meat for pot pies, bones and other trimmings for stock and fat, skimmed from the stock and used to make gravy for the pot pies. Giblets (2) are frozen until enough have accumulated to make liver pate or other special dishes." "We use every bit of the chicken."
Ok, sheez, ewww, this is one of the most brutal, callous, and disgusting articles I have ever read. What are we doing as a society that we don't think twice about chopping up a bird, a chicken, and eating it? And not just its flesh, but its liver, its fat, its heart, its "oyster", and anything and everything else we can. What is going on that people can become so hardened to the reality of what they are doing that they don't even think twice about the fact that they are chopping up a bird, chopping off its "breasts", and eating them? We not only don't think twice about it, it is actually extolled and glorified as a great thing to do. Talk about glorying in our shame.
Mark Fergusson
Chief Vegetarian Officer
- According to Wikipedia: Oysters are two small, round pieces of dark meat on the back of poultry near the thigh. Some regard the "oyster meat" to be the most flavorful and tender part of the bird, while others dislike the taste and texture.
- According to Wikipedia: Giblets are the edible offal of a fowl, typically including the heart, gizzard, liver, and other visceral organs: the term is culinary usage only.